THE 



ATHANASIAN CREED, 



EXTRACTED FROM 



THE APOCALYPSE 



OR BOOK OF 



REVELATIONS EXPLAINED 



EMANUEL SWEDE NBORG. 



BOSTON: 

OTIS CLAPP, SCHOOL STREET. 



MDCCCXLI. 



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ADVERTISEMENT. 

This little work is taken from the Apocalypse Explained, beginning 
with No. 1091 and ending with No. 1229. As it is there published it 
cannot be read continuously without considerable difficulty, it being a 
work which is distinct and complete in itself, and yet added in small 
portions to the sections of another work, which is also complete in itself. 
To obviate this difficulty and thus to make this treatise more exten- 
sively useful, it has been thought advisable to publish it separately. 

The present edition of 1841 has been carefully revised, and the 
translation is believed to be improved. 






ft 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY FREEMAN AND BOLLES, 

WASHINGTON STREET. 



4 



t 1»* 






7 
CONTENTS. ; ^ 



Page. 

The Athanasian Creed, • • • • • • * 

The state of faith and love with man in this world, and afterwards 
in the other into which he comes after death, 2 

That the doctrine of faith which has its name from Athanasius, 
leaves a clear idea whilst it is reading, that there are three per- 
sons, and hence that there are three unanimous Gods, and an 
obscure idea that God is one, and so obscure, that it does not re- 
move the idea of three Gods, • 10 

That the same doctrine leaves a clear idea that the Lord has a Di- 
vine and a Human, or that the Lord is God and Man, but an ob- 
scure idea that the Divine and Human of the Lord are one per- 
son, and that his Divine is in his Human as the soul in the body, 12 

That nevertheless all things contained in that doctrine, from begin- 
ning to end, both such as are clear and such as are obscure, agree 
and coincide with the truth, if instead of saying that God is one 
in essence and three in person, it be believed, as the real truth is, 
that God is one both in essence and person, 15 

The agreement of all things of the Athanasian doctrine with this 
truth, that God is one both in essence and person, in whom is a 
trinity (trinum), 16 

The agreement of the Athanasian doctrine with this truth, that the 
Human of the Lord is Divine by virtue of the Divine which was 
in him from conception, * 18 

That this has come to pass by the Divine Providence of the Lord, 19 

That in the Lord there is a trinity (trinum), the Divine Itself, 
which is called the Father, the Divine Human which is called 
the Son, and the Divine Proceeding which is called the Holy 
Spirit, 20 

Of the Life Itself, which is God, and of the Divine attributes, 
Eternity, Infinity and Omnipotence, 26 

The laws of Divine order respecting man's reformation, regenera- 
tion, and consequent salvation, which are called laws of Divine 
Providence, 36 

Of the first and second law of Divine Providence, 39 

third Law of Divine Providence, 42 

fourth law of Divine Providence, 51 

fifth law of Divine Providence, 54 

sixth law of Divine Providence, 57 

seventh law of Divine Providence, 59 

eighth law of Divine Providence, 62 

nintli law of Divine Providence, 71 

tenth law of Divine Providence, 82 

Of the life of animals and the soul of vegetables, 90 

Of the Divine Omnipresence and Omniscience, 109 



* ATHANASIAN CREED. 

The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son, neither 
made, nor created, nor born, but proceeding. Thus there is 
one Father, not three Fathers, one Son, not three Sons, one 
Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this trinity 
none is prior or posterior to the other, neither is he greater or 
less than the other ; but all the three persons are together 
eternal, and are altogether equal So that in all things, as 
was before said, the unity in trinity and the trinity in unity 
is to be worshiped; (according to others, three persons in 
one Godhead, and one God in three persons is to be wor- 
shiped). Wherefore, whoever would be saved, should thus 
think of the trinity. It is also further necessary for salva- 
tion, that he believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord 
Jesus Christ; (according to others, that he constantly be- 
lieve that our Lord Jesus Christ is true man). For the 
true faith is, that we believe and confess, that our Lord Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God, is God and man, God of the sub- 
stance (or essence; according to others, nature) of the 
Father, born before the world, and man of the substance, 
(according to others, nature) of the mother, born in the 
world: perfect God and perfect Man, consisting of a, rational 
soul and a human body : equal to the Father as to the Divine, 
and inferior to (according to others, less than) the Father as 
to the Human. Who, although God and man, yet they are 
not two, but one Christ : one, not by conversion of the Divine 
Essence into the Human (of the Divinity into body), but by 
assumption of the Human Essence into the Divine (into God) ; 
one altogether, not by commixture of essence (of substance), 
but by unity of person (according to others, because they are 
one person) : for as the rational boul and body are one man, 
so God and man is one Christ. Who suffered for our sal- 
vation, descended into hell, and reascended on the third day 
from the dead, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the 
right hand of the Father God Almighty ; from whence he is 
about to come to judge the living and the dead. At whose 
coming all men shall rise again with their bodies ; and they 
who have done good things shall enter into life eternal, and 
they who have done evil things, into eternal fire. This is the 
catholic faith, which unless a man believe faithfully, he 
cannot be saved. Glory to God the Father and Son and 
Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now, and shall 
be forever, word without end, Amen." 

2. This is the doctrine concerning God received through- 
out the whole christian world, because received from a (gen- 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



3 



eral) council. But, before we take that doctrine into ex- 
amination, an arcanum concerning the state of faith and of 
love with man in this world, and afterwards in the other, 
into which he comes after death, shall be made known ; for 
until this be made known, man knows no other than that 
every one, without any regard to his faith, may be let into 
heaven and be saved by the Divine mercy ; whence is the 
erroneous belief of the Roman Catholics, that heaven is 
open to man at the good pleasure of the pope, and by the 
favor of his vicars. The arcanum is this, that all the thoughts 
of man diffuse themselves into the spiritual world, in every 
direction, not unlike the rays of light diffused from flame. 
Inasmuch as the spiritual world consists of heaven and hell ; 
and heaven consists of innumerable societies, and in like 
manner hell, hence the thoughts of man must needs diffuse 
themselves into societies ; spiritual thoughts, which relate to 
the Lord, to love and faith in him, and to the truths and 
goods of heaven and the church, into heavenly societies; 
but thoughts merely natural, which relate to self and the 
world, and the love thereof, and not to God at the same time, 
into infernal societies. That there is such an extension and 
determination of all the thoughts of man, has hitherto been 
unknown, because it was unknown what the quality of heaven 
is, and what the quality of hell, thus that they consist of 
societies, consequently that there is an extension of the 
thoughts of man into another world than the natural, into 
which latter world there is indeed an extension of the sight 
of his eyes; but it is the spiritual world into which thought 
extends itself, and it is the natural world into which vision 
extends itself, since the thought of the mind is spiritual, and 
the vision of the eye is natural. That there is an extension 
of all the thoughts of man into societies of the spiritual 
world, and that no thought can be given without such exten- 
sion, has been so testified to me from the experience of many 
years, that with all faith, I can assert it to be true. In a 
word, man with his head is in the spiritual world, as with his 
body he is in the natural world : by head is here meant his 
mind, consisting of understanding, thought, will, and love; 
and by body is here meant his senses, which are seeing, 
hearing, smelling, taste, and touch : and whereas man as to 
his head, that is, as to his mind, is in the spiritual world, 
therefore he is either in heaven or in hell, and where the 
mind is, there the whole man is with head and body, when 
he becomes a spirit; and man is altogether of a quality 



4 ATHANASJAN CREED. 

agreeable to his conjunction with the societies of the spiritual 
world, being an angel of a quality agreeable to his con- 
junction with the societies of heaven, or a devil of a quality 
agreeable to his conjunction with the societies of hell. 

3. From what has been said, it is evident that the thoughts 
..... & 

of man are extensions into societies either heavenly or infer- 
nal, and that unless they were extensions they would be no 
thoughts ; for the thought of man is as the sight of his eyes, 
which, unless it had extension out of itself, would either be 
no sight, or be blindness. But man's love is what determines 
his thoughts into societies, good love determining them into 
heavenly societies, and evil love into infernal societies : for 
the universal heaven is arranged into societies, according to 
all the varieties of the affections which are of love, in gen- 
eral, in species, and in particular ; on the other hand, hell is 
arranged into societies according to the lusts of the love of 
evil, opposite to the affections of the love of good. Man's 
love is comparatively as fire, and his thoughts are as rays of 
light thence derived ; if the love be good, then the thoughts, 
which are as rays, are truths; if the love be evil, the thoughts 
which are as rays, are falsities. Thoughts derived from 
good love, which are truths, tend towards heaven, but 
thoughts derived from evil love, which are falsities, tend 
towards hell, and conjoin, infit, and as it were inoculate 
themselves into homogeneous societies, viz. such as are of 
like love, so entirely, that the man is altogether one with 
those societies. Man, by love to the Lord, is an image of 
him : the Lord is Divine love, and in heaven before the 
angels he appears as a sun : from that sun proceeds light and 
heat, light is Divine truth, and heat is Divine good ; from 
these two is the universal heaven, and all the societies of 
heaven. The Lord's love with man, who is an image of him, 
is as fire from that sun, from which fire in like manner pro- 
ceed light and heat: the light is the truth of faith, and the 
heat is the good of love, each from the Lord, and each in- 
generated in the societies with which the man's love acts in 
unity. That man from creation is an image and likeness of 
God, is evident from Genesis i. 26, and the reason why he is 
an image and likeness of the Lord by love, is, because man 
by love is in the Lord and the Lord in him, John xiv. 20,21. 
In a word, there cannot exist the smallest portion of thought, 
but what has reception given it in some society, not with the 
individuals or angels of the society, but with the affection of 
love, from which and in which that society is ; hence it is, 



ATHANASIAN CREED. O 

that angels are not conscious of any thing respecting the 
influx, neither does that influx in any manner disturb the 
society. From these considerations the above truth is 
evident, that man is in conjunction with heaven whilst he 
lives in the world, and likewise in consociation with angels, 
although both men and angels are ignorant of it ; the cause 
of their ignorance is, because the thought of man is natural, 
and the thought of an angel spiritual, which make one only 
by correspondences. Inasmuch as man, by the thoughts of 
his love, is inaugurated into societies either of heaven or 
hell, therefore, when he comes into the spiritual world, as is 
the case immediately after death, his quality is known merely 
by the extensions of his thoughts into societies, and thus 
every one is explored; he is also reformed by the admissions 
of thoughts into societies of heaven, and he is condemned 
by immersions of his thoughts into societies of hell. 

4. Since man, at his birth, is not in any society either 
heavenly or infernal, inasmuch as he is without thought, and 
yet is born for eternal life, it follows that, in process of time, 
he either opens heaven to himself, or opens hell, and enters 
into societies, and becomes an inhabitant either of heaven 
or of hell, even while he is an inhabitant of the world : the 
reason why man becomes an inhabitant there is, because in 
the spiritual world is his real habitation, and, as it is called, 
his country, for he is to live there to eternity, after he has 
lived a few years in the natural world. From these consid- 
erations, it may be concluded, how necessary it is for man 
to know, what opens heaven with him, and introduces him 
into its societies ; also, what opens hell with him, and in- 
troduces him into its societies; this will be shown in the fol- 
lowing articles : and suffice it to observe at present, that man 
lets himself into societies of heaven successively more and 
more, according to increments of wisdom, and into more 
and more interior societies successively, according to incre- 
ments of the love of good ; also, in proportion as heaven is 
opened to him, in the same proportion hell is closed : never- 
theless, man himself opens to himself hell, but heaven is 
opened to man by the Lord. 

5. The first and primary thought, which opens heaven to 
man, is thought concerning God ; the reason is, because 
God is the All of heaven, insomuch that whether you speak 
of heaven or of God it is the same thing ; the Divine prin- 
ciples which make the angels to be angels, of whom heaven 
consists, taken together, are God; hence it is, that thought 
1* 



6 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



concerning God is the first and primary of all thoughts which 
open heaven to man, for it is the head and sum of all truths 
and loves celestial and spiritual. But there is given the 
thought of light and there is given the thought of love, 
the thought of light alone being the knowledge that God 
is, which appears as acknowledgment, but still is not so. 
By the thought of light man has presence in heaven, but 
not conjunction with heaven : for the light of thouo-ht, 
alone, does not conjoin, but exhibits man present to the 
Lord and to angels, inasmuch as that light is like winter- 
light, in which man sees with equal clearness as in summer- 
light, but which nevertheless does not conjoin itself to the 
earth, nor to any tree, shrub, flower, or grass : every man, 
also, has implanted in him the faculty of thinking about 
God, and, likewise, of understanding those things which are 
of God, by virtue of the light of heaven, but the thought 
alone of that light, which is intellectual thought, merely 
constitutes his presence before the Lord and before the 
angels, as was said above. When man is in intellectual 
thought alone concerning God and concerning those things 
which are of God, he then appears to the angels from afar 
as an image of ivory or of marble, which can walk and utter 
sounds, but in whose face and in whose sound there is yet 
no life ; and so, likewise, he appears to the angels, com- 
paratively, as a tree appears in time of winter, with naked 
branches without leaves, of which, nevertheless, some hope 
is cherished, that it will be covered with leaves, and after- 
wards with fruits, when heat adjoins itself to light, as is the 
case in time of spring. As thought concerning God primarily 
opens heaven, so thought against God primarily closes heaven. 
6. Thought concerning one God opens heaven to man, 
because there is but one God : on the other hand, thought 
concerning several Gods closes heaven, since the idea of 
several Gods destroys the idea of one God. Thought con- 
cerning the true God opens heaven, for heaven and all that 
belongs to it is from the true God : on the other hand, 
thought concerning a false God closes heaven, for no other 
God but the true God is acknowledged in heaven. Thought 
concerning God, Creator, Redeemer, and Illustrator, opens 
heaven, for this trinity is of the one and true God ; also, 
thought concerning God infinite, eternal, uncreate, omnipo- 
tent, omnipresent, and omniscient, opens heaven, for these 
are attributes of the essence of the one and true God : on 
the other hand, thought concerning a living man as God, of 



ATHANASIAN CREED. / 

a dead man as God, and of an idol as God, closes heaven, 
because they are not omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, 
uncreate, eternal, and infinite, neither from them was creation 
and redemption, nor from them is illustration. Thought 
concerning God as a man, in whom is a Divine trinity, viz. 
what is called Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, opens heaven : 
on the other hand, thought concerning God as not a man, 
which thought is apparently presented as a little cloud, or as 
nature in her smallest principles, closes heaven : for God 
is a man, as the universal angelic heaven in its complex is a 
man, and every angel and every spirit is thence a man : 
therefore, thought concerning the Lord as being the God of 
the universe, alone opens heaven : for the Lord says, ' The 
Father hath given all things into the hand of the Son/ John 
iii. 35. ' The Father hath given to the Son power over all 
flesh/ John xvii. 2. ' All things are delivered to me by the 
Father/ Matt. *i. 27. ' All power is given to me in heaven 
and in earth/ Matt, xxviii. 18. From these considerations it 
is evident, that man without the idea of God, such as it is in 
heaven, cannot be saved : the idea of God in heaven is the 
Lord; for the angels of heaven are in the Lord, and the 
Lord in them ; wherefore, to think of any other God than 
the Lord, is to them impossible ; see John xiv. 20, 21. Allow 
me to add, that the idea of God as a man, is engrafted from 
heaven in every nation throughout the universal terrestrial 
globe, but, what I lament, is destroyed in Christendom : the 
causes will be shown below. 

7. The thought, alone, that God is, and that the Lord is 
the God of heaven, opens, indeed, heaven, and exhibits man 
present there, yet so lightly, that he is almost unseen, appear- 
ing afar off as in the shade; but in proportion as his thought 
becomes more full, more true, and more just, concerning 
God, in the same proportion he appears in light : the thought 
is rendered more full by the knowledges of truth, which are 
of faith, and of good, which are of love, from the Word ; 
for all things which are from the Word are divine, and di- 
vine things taken together are God. The man who only 
thinks that God is, and thinks nothing about his quality, is 
as one who thinks that the Word is, and that it is holy, yet 
knows nothing of what is in it ; or who thinks that the law 
is, and knows nothing of what is in the law; when yet the 
thought of what God is, is so ample, that it fills heaven, and 
constitutes all the wisdom in which the angels are, which is 
ineffable, for in itself it is infinite, because God is infinite. 



8 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

The thought that God is, derived from his quality, is what is 
meant in the Word by the name of God. 

8. It was said, that man has thought from light, and that 
he has thought from love, and that thought from light makes 
the presence of man in heaven, but thought from love makes 
the conjunction of man with heaven : the reason is, because 
love is spiritual conjunction : hence it is, that when the 
thought of the light of man becomes the thought of his love, 
man is introduced into heaven, as to a marriage, and so far as 
love in the thought of light is the primary agent, or leads 
that thought, so far man enters heaven as a bride the bride- 
chamber, and is married ; for in the Word the Lord is called 
the bridegroom and husband, and heaven and the church the 
bride and wife ; by being married is meant to be conjoined 
to heaven in some society thereof, and he is so far conjoined 
to it, as he has procured to himself, in the world, intel- 
ligence and wisdom from the Lord, by the Word, thus so far 
as by divine truths he has learned to think that God is, and 
that the Lord is that God ; but he who thinks from few 
truths, thus from little intelligence, whilst he thinks from 
love, is conjoined indeed with heaven, but in itsulteriors. By 
love is meant love to the Lord, and by loving the Lord is not 
meant to love the Lord as a person, since by this love alone, 
man is not conjoined with heaven, but by the love of the Di- 
vine good and Divine truth, which are the Lord in heaven 
and in the church ; and those two are not loved by knowing 
them, thinking them, understanding them, and speaking 
them, but by willing and doing them, for this reason, because 
they are commanded by the Lord, and hence, because they 
are uses : nothing is full until it is done, and what is done is 
the end, and the end is that for the sake of which the love is 
cherished ; wherefore, from the love of willing and doing 
any thing exists the love of knowing, of thinking, of under- 
standing it. Tell me why you are desirous to know and un- 
derstand any thing, except for the sake of the end which 
you love ; the end which is loved is the deed : if you say, 
for the sake of faith, it may be replied, that faith alone, or 
merely of the thought, without actual faith, which is deed, is 
a nonentity. You are very much deceived if you fancy that 
you believe in God, and do not the things which are of God; 
for the Lord teaches in John, * He that hath my precepts and 
cloeth them, he it is who loveth me, and I will make my abode 
with him ; but he who loveth me not, keepeth not my words' 
xiv. 21, 24. In a word, to love and to do are one; where- 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 9 

fore, in the Word, where mention is made of loving, doing 
is understood, and where mention is made of doing, loving 
is also understood ; for what I love, this I do. 

9. There is given the thought of light concerning God, 
and concerning things divine, which in heaven are called ce- 
lestial and spiritual, in the world ecclesiastical and theologi- 
cal, and there is given the thought not of light concerning 
them. The thought not of light appertains to those who 
know those things, and do not understand them ; such are all 
at this day, who are willing that the understanding be kept 
under obedience to faith; yea, that what is not intelligible 
should be believed, saying, that intellectual faith is not true 
faith ; bu* these are they who are not in the genuine affec- 
tion of truth, from an interior principle, and, consequently, 
not in any illustration, and most of them are in the conceit 
of their own intelligence, and in the love of ruling by the 
holy things of the church over the souls of men; not aware, 
that truth wills to be in the light, since the light of heaven is 
Divine truth, and that the understanding truly human is af- 
fected by that light, and sees from it, and if it did not see, it 
would be the memory that has faith, and not the man, and 
such faith is blind, because without an idea from the light of 
truth, for the understanding is the man, and the memory is 
introductory. If what is not intelligible is to be believed, 
man, like a parrot, might be taught to speak and to remem- 
ber, even that there is sanctity in the bones of the dead and 
in sepulchres, that carcases do miracles, that man will be tor- 
mented in purgatory if he does not consecrate his wealth to 
idols or monasteries, that men are Gods, because heaven and 
hell are in their power, not to mention other similar articles 
of faith, which man must believe from a blind faith and 
from a closed understanding, and thus from the light of 
both extinguished. But be it known, that all the truths of 
the Word, which are truths of heaven and of the church, 
may be seen by the understanding, in heaven spiritually, in 
the world rationally; for the understanding truly human is 
the very sight itself of those things, being separated from 
what is material, and when it is separated, it sees truths as 
clearly as the eye sees objects ; it sees truths as it loves them, 
for as it loves them it is illustrated. The angels have wis- 
dom in consequence of seeing truths ; wherefore, when it is 
said to any angel, that this or that is to be believed although 
it is not understood, the angel replies, do you suppose me to 
be insane, or that yourself are a god whom I should believe t 
If I do not see, it may be something false from hell, 



10 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

10. We now proceed to the doctrine of the Trinity, which 
was written by Athanasius, and confirmed by the council of 
Nice. This doctrine is such, that whilst it is read it leaves a 
clear idea that there are three persons, and hence that there 
are three unanimous Gods, but [it leaves] an obscure idea that 
God is one ; when yet, as was above said, the idea of thought 
concerning one God primarily opens heaven to man ; and, on 
the other hand, the idea of three Gods closes heaven. That 
this Athanasian doctrine, whilst it is read, leaves a clear idea 
that there are three persons, and hence that there are three 
unanimous Gods, and that this unanimous Trinity makes the 
thought that there is one God, let every one decide for him- 
self whether he can think otherwise; for it is said, in the 
Athanasian creed, in express words, " There is one person of 
the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy 
Spirit. The Father is uncreate, infinite, eternal, omnipotent, 
God, Lord, so likewise is the Son, and so likewise is the Holy 
Spirit. Also, the Father was made and created of none, the 
Son was born of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceedeth 

from both. Thus there is one Father, one Son, and one Holy 
Spirit. And in this trinity all the three persons are to- 
gether eternal, and are altogether equal" From these words 
no one can think otherwise than that there are three Gods; 
neither could Athanasius think otherwise, nor also the Ni- 
ce ne council, as is evident from these words inserted in the 
doctrine : " .4s we are obliged by the christian verity to ac- 
knowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, yet 
are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say there be three 
Gods and three Lords :" which cannot be understood in any 
other sense, than that it is allowable to acknowledge three 
Gods and Lords, but not to name them ; or that it is allow- 
able to think of three Gods and Lords, but not to say [that 
there are three Gods and Lords.] 

11. That the doctrine of the Trinity, which is called the 
Athanasian Creed, whilst it is read, leaves an obscure idea 
that God is one, and so obscure as not to remove the idea of 
three Gods, may be manifest from this consideration, that the 
doctrine makes one God of three, by unity of essence, say- 
ing, " This is the christian faith, that we worship one God 
in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither commixing the per- 
sons, nor separating the essence:" and afterwards, " Thus 
the unity in trinity, and the trinity in unity is to be wor- 
shiped" These things are said to remove the idea of three 
Gods, but they do not fall into the understanding otherwise 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 11 

than that there are three persons, but one Divine essence to all ; 
thus by Divine essence is there meant God, when yet essence, 
as also divinity, majesty, and glory, which are also men- 
tioned, is a predicate, and God, as being a person, is the sub- 
ject, wherefore to say that essence is God would be like say- 
ing that a predicate is a subject, when yet essence is not God, 
but is of God, as likewise majesty and glory are not God, but 
are of God, as a predicate is not a subject, but is of a sub- 
ject ; hence it is evident the idea of three Gods as of 
three persons is not removed. This may be illustrated by a 
comparison : Let there be three rulers in one kingdom of 
equal power, and let every one be called king; in this case, 
if power and majesty is meant by king, they may, if it be so 
commanded, be called and said to be king ; but whereas it is 
person which is meant by king, it is impossible, from any 
mandate, that three kings can be conceived to be one king : 
wherefore, if they should say to you, speak to us with the 
same freedom with which you think, you would, undoubt- 
edly, say, ye are kings, also ye are majesties ; if you should 
reply, I think as I speak in obedience to the mandate, you 
are deceived, because you either simulate or compel yourself, 
and if you compel yourself, your thought is not left to itself, 
but inheres in the speech. That this is the case, was seen 
also by Athanasius, wherefore he explains the above words 
by the following ; " As we are obliged by the christian verity 
to acknowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, 
so are we forbidden by the catholic relighn to say that there 
are three Gods and three Lords ";" which words cannot be 
otherwise understood than that it is allowable to acknowledge 
three Gods and, Lords, but not to name them; or that it is 
allowable to think of three Gods and Lords, but not to say 
so, because it is contrary to the christian faith ; in like man- 
ner, that it is allowable to acknowledge and think of three 
infinites, eternals, uncreates, and omnipotents, because there 
are three persons, but not to name three infinities, eternals, 
uncreates, and omnipotents, but only one. The reason why 
Athanasius added the above quoted words to the rest is, be- 
cause no one can think otherwise, not even himself, yet every 
one can speak otherwise, and that every one ought to speak 
so, because it is taught by the christian religion, that is, from 
the Word, that there are not three Gods, but that there is 
one God. Moreover, the property which is adjoined to each 
person as his special attribute, as creation to the Father, re- 
demption to the Son, and illustration to the Holy Spirit, is 



12 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

not thus one and the same with the three persons, and yet 
each property enters the Divine essence, for creation is di- 
vine, redemption is divine, and illustration is divine. More- 
over, what man thinks that the trinity in unity and unity in 
trinity is to be ivorshiped, neither commixing the persons, nor 
separating the essence, who is desirous to turn the idea of 
three Gods into the idea of one God ? Who can do this, by 
any power of metaphysics which transcends the apprehen- 
sion ! The simple are utterly incapable of doing it; but the 
learned hurry it over, saying with themselves, this is my doc- 
trine and faith concerning God ; nor do they thence retain 
any thing else in the memory from an obscure idea, or any 
thing else in the idea from the memory, than that there are 
three persons, and one God, and every man out of three 
makes one in his own way, but this only when he speaks and 
writes, but whilst he thinks, he cannot think otherwise than 
of three, and one from the unanimity of three, and, often, not 
even from that [unanimity.] But attend, my reader, and do 
not say to yourself, that these things are too harshly and too 
boldly spoken against the faith universally received concern- 
ing the triune God ; for, in the following pages, you will 
see, that all and singular the things which are written in the 
Athanasian creed, agree with the truth, if only, instead of 
three persons, one person he believed in, in whom is a trinity. 
12. Another point which the Athanasian doctrine teaches, 
is, that in the Lord there are too essences, the Divine and 
the Human; and in that doctrine the idea is clear that the 
Divine and the Human pertain to the Lord, or that the Lord 
is God and Man ; but the idea is obscure, that the Divine of 
the Lord is in His Human, as the soul in the body. The 
clear idea, that the Lord has a Divine and a Human, is drawn 
from these words : " The true faith is, that we believe and 
, confess, that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God 
and Man ; God of the substance of the Father born before 
the world, and Man of the substance of the Mother born in 
the world ; perfect God, and perfect Man, consisting of a ra- 
tional soul. Equal to the Father as to the Divine, and in- 
ferior to the Father as to the Human." Here stops the clear 
idea, nor does it go further, because from what follows it be- 
comes an obscure idea, and the things which are of an ob- 
scure idea, inasmuch as they do not enter the memory from 
any thought of light, do not gain a place there, except among 
such tilings as are not of the light, which things, since they 
do not appear before the understanding, hide themselves, nor 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 13 

can they be called forth from the memory together with those 
things which are of the light. The point in that doctrine, 
which is an obscure idea, is, that the Divine of the Lord is 
in his Human, as the soul in the body ; for on this subject it 
is thus said : " Who, although he be God and Man, yet are 
not two, but one Christ; one altogether by unity of person ; 
since as the rational soul and the body are one man, so God 
and M an is one Christ;" the idea contained in these words 
in itself indeed is clear, but still it becomes obscure by the 
folio win a* words : " One, not by conversion of the Divine es- 
sence into the Human, but by assumption of the Human 
essence into the Divine; one altogether, not by commixture of 
essence, but by unity of person." Inasmuch as a clear idea 
prevails over an obscure idea, therefore most people, both 
simple and learned, think of the Lord as of a common man, 
like themselves, and not at the same time of his Divine; if 
they think of the Divine, then they separate it in their idea 
from the Human, and thereby also infringe the unity of per- 
son : if they are asked where is his Divine ? they reply, from 
their idea, in heaven with the Father; the reason why they 
so say and so perceive, is, because they find a repugnance to 
think that the Human is Divine, and thus one with its Divine 
in heaven, not aware, that whilst in thought they thus sepa- 
rate the Divine of the Lord from his Human, they not only 
think contrary to their own doctrine, which teaches that the 
Divine of the Lord is in his Human, as the soul in the body, 
also, that there is unity of person, that is, that they are one 
person, but also, they charge that doctrine undeservedly with 
contradiction or fallacy, in supposing that the Human of the 
Lord, together with the rational soul, was from the mother 
alone, when yet every man is rational by virtue of the soul, 
which is from the father. But that such thought has place, 
and such a separation, follows also from the idea of three 
Gods, from which idea it results, that his Divine in the Hu- 
man is from the Divine of the Father, who is the first per- 
son, when yet it is his own proper Divine, which descended 
from heaven and assumed the PTuman. If man does not 
rightly perceive this, he may possibly be led to suppose, that 
his begetting [ex quo] Father was not one Divine, but three- 
fold, which yet cannot be received with any faith. In a word, 
they who separate the Divine from his Human, and do not 
think that the Divine is in his Human as the soul in the body, 
and that they are one person, may fall into erroneous ideas 
concerning the Lord, even into an idea as of a man sepa- 



14 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

rated from a soul ; wherefore take heed to thyself, lest you 
think of the Lord as of a man like yourself, but rather think 
of the Lord as of a Man who is God. Attend, my reader ! 
when you are perusing these pages, you may be led to sup- 
pose, that you have never, in thought, separated the Divine 
of the Lord from his Human, thus neither the Human from 
the Divine ; but, I beseech you, consult your thought, when 
you have determined it to the Lord, whether you have ever 
considered, that the Divine of the Lord is in his Human as 
the soul in the body? rather have you not thought, yea, if 
you are now willing to make the inquiry, do not you at pre- 
sent think of his human separately, and of his Divine sepa- 
rately ? And when you think of his Human, do not you con- 
ceive it to be like the human of another man, and when 
of the Divine, do not you conceive it in your idea, to be with 
the Father? I have questioned great numbers, even the 
rulers of the church, and they have all replied that it is so; 
and when I have said, that yet it is a doctrine of the Athan- 
asian creed, which is the very doctrine of their church 
concerning God and concerning the Lord, that the Divine of 
the Lord is in his Human as the soul in the body, they have 
replied, that they did not know this : and when I have recited 
these words of the doctrine, " Our Lord Jesus Christ the Son 
of God, although he be God and Man, yet they are not two but 
one Christ ; one altogether by unity of person ; since as the 
rational soul and body are one man, so God and Man is one 
Christ ;" they were then silent and confessed afterwards, that 
they had not noted these words, being indignant at them- 
selves for having with so careless [strictis] eyes, examined 
their own doctrine : some of them then gave up their mystic 
union of the Divine of the Father with the Human of the 
Lord. That the Divine is in the Human of the Lord, as the 
soul in the body, the Word teaches and testifies in Matthew 
and in Luke ; in Matthew thus : ' Mary being betrothed to Jo- 
seph, before they came together, was found to be with child, by 
the Holy Spirit : and an angel said to Joseph in a dream, fear 
not to take Mary thy bride, for that which is born in her is 
from the Holy Spirit \ And Joseph knew her not until she 
brought forth her first born Son, and he called his name Jesus.' 
i. 18, 20, 25 : and in Luke : * The angel sad to Mary, be- 
hold thou shalt conceive in the womb, and shcdl b ing forth a 
son, and shalt call his name Jesus. Mary said to the angel, 
how shall this thing be, since 1 knew not a man; the angel said 
in reply, the Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the virtue 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 15 

of the Highest shall overshadow thee, whence the Holy thing 
which is born of thee shall be called the Son of God,' i. 31, 
32, 34, 35 : from which words it is evident, that the Divine 
was in the Lord from conception, and that it was his life 
from the Father, which life is soul. These are sufficient for 
the present; more will he said concerning them in what fol- 
lows, when it shall be proved, that even the things in the 
Athanasian doctrine, which give an obscure idea of the Lord, 
are in agreement with the truth, when the trinity, viz. Fa- 
ther, Son, and Holy Spirit, is thought and believed to be in 
the Lord as in one person : without such thought and faith, 
it may be said, that christians, in contradiction to all people 
and nations in the universal globe, who have rationality, 
worship three Gods, as indeed it is asserted by them ; when 
yet the christian orb both may and ought to excel all others 
in the brightness of the doctrine and faith, that God is one 
both in essence and person. 

13. It has been shown that the doctrine of faith, which 
has its name from Athanasius, leaves a clear idea, whilst 
it is read, that there are three persons, and hence that there 
are three unanimous Gods, and an obscure idea that God is 
one, and so obscure, that it does not remove the idea of three 
Gods: and further, that the same doctrine leaves a clear idea 
that the Lord has a Divine and a Human, or that the Lord is 
God and Man, but an obscure idea that the Divine and Hu- 
man of the Lord are one person, and that his Divine is in 
his Human as the soul in the body. It has been also said, 
that nevertheless, all things in that doctrine, from beginning 
to end, both such as are clear and such as are obscure, agree 
and coincide with the truth, if instead of this, that God is 
one in essence and three in person, it be believed, as the 
real truth is, that God is one both in essence and in person. 
There is a trinity in God, and there is also unity ; that there 
is a trinity may be manifest from the passages in the Word 
where mention is made of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit; 
and that there is unity, from the passages in the Word, where 
it is said that God is one. The unity in which is a trinity, 
or the one God in whom is a trine, is not given in the Divine 
which is called the Father, nor in the Divine which is called 
the Hoiy Spirit, but in the Lord alone. In the Lord there is 
a trine, viz. the Divine which is called Father, the Divine 
Human which is called Son, and the Divine Proceeding 
which is the Holy Spirit; and this trine is one, because it 
is of one person, and may be called a triune. In what now 



16 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

follows, may be seen the agreement of all things of the Athan- 
asian doctrine with what is here asserted : First, con- 
cerning the trinity : Secondly, concerning the unity of per- 
son in the Lord : Thirdly, that it has come to pass of the 
Divine Providence, that that doctrine was so written, that al- 
though it disagrees, stiil it agrees with the truth. Afterwards, 
in general, will be proved the trine in the Lord : and then, 
specifically, that the Divine which is called the Father, is he, 
that the Divine which is called the Son, is he, and that the 
Divine, which is called the Holy Spirit, is he. 

14. We shall now proceed to the agreement of all things 
of the Athanasian doctrine with this truth, that God is one 
both in essence and person, in whom is a trine (trinum) ; 
and to establish and prove this agreement, I desire to proceed 
in the following order. The Athanasian doctrine first 
teaches thus : " The catholic faith is this, that we worship one 
God in trinity, and trinity in unity, neither commixing the 
persons, nor separating the essence:" these words, when in- 
stead of three persons one person is understood, in whom 
is a trine, are in themselves truth, and are perceived 
by a clear idea thus, ' The christian faith is this, that we 
worship one God, in whom is a trine, and a trine in one God, 
and that the God, in whom is a trine, is one person, and that 
the trine in God is one essence ; thus there is one God in 
trinity, and trinity in unity, neither are persons commixed, 
nor essence separated :' that persons are not commixed nor 
essence separated will appear more clearly from what 
now follows. The Athanasian doctrine further teaches, 
" Since there is one person of the Father, another of 
the Son, another of the Holy Spirit, but the Divinity of the 
Father, of the Son, and of Holy Spirit, is one and the 
same, the glory equal:" in this case, also, when instead of 
three persons one person is understood, in whom is a trine, 
the words are in themselves truth, and in a clear idea are per- 
ceived thus : ' the trine in the Lord, as in one person, is the 
Divine which is called the Father, the Divine Human 
which is called the Son, and the Divine Proceeding which is 
called the Holy Spirit ; but the Divinity or Divine essence of 
the three is one, the glory equal.' Again : " Such as the 
Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit :" 
these words in such case are perceived thus : ' Such as the 
Divine is which is called the Father, such is the Divine 
which is called the Son, and such is the Divine which is 
called the Holy Spirit/ And further \ H Tht Father is m* 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 17 

create, the Son is uncreate, and the Holy Spirit is uncreate : 
the Father is infinite, the Son is infinite, and the Holy Spirit 
is infinite : the Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy 
Spirit is eternal : nevertheless there are not three eternals, but 
one eternal ; and there are not three infinites, hut one infinite ; 
neither are there three uncreated, but one uncreated: as the Fa- 
thcr is almighty, so the So?i is almighty, and the Holy Spirit 
is almighty, and yet there are not three almighties, but one 
almighty : ,} when, instead of three persons, one person is 
understood, in whom is a trine, then also these words are in 
themselves truth, and in a clear idea are perceived thus: * as 
the Divine in the Lord, which is called the Father, is uncreate, 
infinite, omnipotent, so the Divine Human which is called 
the Son, is uncreate, infinite, omnipotent, and so the Divine 
which is called the Holy Spirit, is uncreate, infinite, and om- 
nipotent ; but these three are one, because the Lord is one 
God, both in essence and person, in whom is a trine. In the 
Athanasian doctrine are also the following words : "As the 
Father is God, the Son also is God, and the Holy Spirit is 
God, nevertheless there are not three Gods, but one God. Sa 
the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, and the Holy Spirit is 
Lord, yet there are not three Lords, but one Lord ;" in this 
case, also, w r hen instead of three persons one person is un- 
derstood, in whom is a trine, the words are perceived in a 
clear idea thus : ' that the Lord, from his Divine which is 
called the Father, from his Divine Human which is called 
the Son, and from his Divine Proceeding, which is called 
the Holy Spirit, is one God and one Lord, since the three 
Divine called by the names of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
are in the Lord, one in essence and in person.' Further : 
if Forasmuch as we are compelled by the christian verity to ac- 
knowledge every person by himself to be God and Lord, still 
by the catholic religion ice are forbidden to say there are three 
Gods and three Lords :" (in other copies thus : u As we are 
bound by the christian truth to acknowledge every person to be 
God or Liord, so we cannot in christian faith make mention of 
three Gods or three Lords :' ? these words cannot be otherwise 
understood, than that by the christian verity we must needs 
acknowledge and think that there are three Gods and three 
Lords, but that still it is not allowable, by the christian faith 
and religion, to say and to name three Gods or three Lords ; 
as is also the case, for the generality think of three Gods 
who are unanimous, and hence they call them a unanimous 
trine, but still they are bound to say one God : nevertheless, 
2* 



18 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

on the idea that there are not three persons, but one person, 
then, instead of the above words, which ought to be taken 
away from the Athanasian doctrine, may be substituted the 
following : 6 When we acknowledge a trine in the Lord, then 
it is from truth, and thereby from the christian faith and re- 
ligion, that we acknowledge both with the lips and the heart 
one God and one Lord ;' for, if it was allowed to acknowl- 
edge and think of three, it would be allowed also to believe 
in three, for believing or faith is of thought and acknowledg- 
ment, and hence of speech, and not of speech separate [from 
thought and acknowledgment.] Afterwards follow these 
words : " The Father ivas made of none, neither created nor 
horn : the Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor created, 
but born ; the Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, not 
made, nor created, nor born, but proceeding. Thus there is 
one Father, not three Fathers, one Son,, not three Sons, one 
Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits :" these words agree al- 
together with the truth, if only instead of the Father we un- 
derstand the Divine of the Lord which is called the Father, 
instead of the Son, his Divine Human, and instead of the 
Holy Spirit, his Divine Proceeding ; for from the Divine 
which is called the Father was born the Divine Human, which 
is called the Son, and from both proceeds the Divine which 
is calied the Holy Spirit : but, concerning the Divine Hu- 
man, born of the Father, we shall speak more specifically in 
what follows. From these considerations it is now evident, 
that the Athanasian doctrine agrees with the truth, that God 
is one both in essence and in person, provided that instead 
of three persons be understood one person, in whom is a trine, 
which is called the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In the fol- 
lowing article, a like agreement will be established concern- 
ing unity of person in the Lord. 

15. We now proceed to the agreement of the Athanasian 
doctrine with this truth, that the Human of the Lord is Di- 
vine by virtue of the Divine which was in him from con- 
ception. That the Human of the Lord is Divine, appears, 
indeed, as if it were not in the Athanasian doctrine, but stilt 
it is, as is evident from these words in the doctrine : " Our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man. Who 
although God and Man, yet they are not two hut one Christ ; 
one altogether by unity of person (or as others express it, 
because they are one person); for as the rational soul and 
body are one man, so God and Man is one Christ :" now, 
whereas the soul and body are one man, and hence one 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 19 

person, and such as the soul is such is the body, it follows, 
that since his soul from the Father was Divine, the body also, 
which is his Human, is Divine. He did, indeed, assume a 
body or human from the mother, but this he put off in the 
world, and put on a Human from the Father, and this is the 
Divine Human. It is said in the doctrine, ''Equal to the 
Father as to the Divine, inferior to the Father as to the 
human :" this, likewise, agrees with the truth, provided that 
the human from the mother be meant. In the doctrine, also, 
it is said, tc God and Man is one Christ, one, not by conversion 
of the Divine substance into the Human, but by assumption of 
the Human substance into the Divine : one altogether, not by 
commixture of substance, but by unity of person :" these 
words, likewise, agree with the truth, since the soul does not 
convert itself into body, nor commix itself with body so as 
to become body, but takes body to itself: thus soul and body, 
although they be two distinct things, are still one man, and, 
with respect to the Lord, one Christ, that is, one Man who 
is God. More will be said on the Divine Human of the 
Lord in what follows. 

16. That all and singular things of the Athanasian doc- 
trine, concerning the trinity and concerning the Lord, are 
truth, and are concordant, if only instead of three persons 
be understood one person in whom is a trinity, and it be be- 
lieved that the Lord is that person, has come to pass by the 
Divine providence of the Lord ; for unless they had accepted 
a trinity of persons, at that time they would have become 
either Arians or Socinians, and hence the Lord would have 
been acknowledged as mere man only, and not as God, 
whereby the christian church would have perished, and 
heaven would have been closed to the man of the church ; 
for no one is conjoined with heaven, and admitted after death 
into heaven, unless in the idea of his thought he sees God 
as a man, and at the same time believes God to be one both 
in essence and person ; by this belief the Gentiles are saved ; 
and unless he acknowledges the Lord, his Divine and his 
Human, by which acknowledgment a man of the christian 
church is saved, provided he lives at the same time a christian 
life. That the doctrine concerning God and the Lord, which 
is the primary of all, was so conceived by Athanasius, came 
to pass of Divine permission ; for it was foreseen by the 
Lord, that the Roman Catholics would not otherwise have 
acknowledged the Divine of the Lord, wherefore, also, even 
to this day, they separate his Divine from his Human ; and 



20 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

the Reformed would not have seen the Divine in the Human 
of the Lord, for they who are in faith separate from charity, 
do not see it; still they both of them acknowledge the Divine 
of the Lord in a trinity of persons. Nevertheless, that doc- 
trine, which is called the Athanasian creed, by the Divine 
providence of the Lord was so written, that all things therein 
are truths, provided that instead of three persons one person 
be assumed in whom is a trine, and it be believed that the 
Lord is that person. It is also of providence that they are 
called persons, for a person is a man, and a Divine person is 
God, who is a Man. This is revealed at this day for the 
sake of the New Church, which is called the Holy Jerusalem. 
17. That in the Lord there is a trine, the Divine Itself 
which is called the Father, the Divine Human which is 
called the Son, and the Divine Proceeding which is called 
the Holy Spirit, may be manifest from the Word, from the 
Divine Essence, and from Heaven. From the Word; where 
the Lord himself teaches, that the Father and he are one, 
and that the Holy Spirit proceeds from him and from the 
Father ; also, where the Lord teaches, that the Father is in 
him and he in the Father, and that the Spirit of Truth, 
which is the Holy Spirit, does not speak from himself but 
from the Lord: in like manner, from passages in the old 
Word, where the Lord is called Jehovah, the Son of God, 
and the Holy One of Israel. From the Divine Essence; 
that one Divine by itself is not given, but there is a trine ; 
this trine consists of esse, existere, and proceeding, for esse 
must needs exist, and when it exists must proceed that it may 
produce, and this trine is one essence and one in person, 
and is God. This may be illustrated by comparison ; an 
angel of heaven is trine and thereby one; the esse of an 
angel is that which is called his soul, and his existere is that 
which is called his body, and the proceeding from both is 
that which is called the sphere of his life, without which an 
angel neither exists nor is. By this trine an angel is an 
image of God, and is called a son of God, and also an heir, 
yea, also a god ; nevertheless, an angel is not life from him- 
self, but is a recipient of life; God alone is life from himself. 
From Heaven; the trine Divine, which is one in essence 
and in person, is such in heaven ; for the Divine which is 
called the Father, and the Divine Human which is called the 
Son, appears there, before the angels, as a sun, and the Di- 
vine Proceeding thence as light united to heat, the light 
being divine truth, and the heat being divine good: thus, the 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 21 

Divine which is called the Father, is the Divine esse, the 
Divine Human which is called the Son, is the divine existere 
from that esse, and the Divine which is called the Holy 
Spirit is the Divine Proceeding from the divine existere and 
from the divine esse. This trine is the Lord in heaven ; his 
divine love is what appears as a sun there. 

18. It was said, that one Divine by itself is not given, but 
that there is a trine, and that this [trine] is one God in 
essence and in person : if it now be asked, what sort of trine 
God had, before the Lord assumed the Human and made it 
divine in the world? It is answered, God was then in like 
manner a man, and he had a Divine, a Divine Human, and 
a Divine Proceeding ; or a divine esse, a divine existere, and 
a divine proceeding, for, as was said, God without a trine 
is not given; but the Divine Human at that time was not 
divine even to ultimates, the ultimates are what are called 
flesh and bones ; these also were made divine by the Lord, 
when he was in the world. This was accessory ; and this 
now is the Divine Human [appertaining] to God : this, like- 
wise, may be illustrated by this comparison : every angel is 
a man, having a soul, having a body, and having a proceeding, 
but still, he is not thus a perfect man, for he has not flesh 
and bones, as a man in the world has. That the Lord made 
his Human divine even to its ultimates, which are called 
flesh and bones, he himself manifests to the disciples, who 
believed that they saw a spirit when they saw the Lord, 
saying, ' See my hands and my feet that it is I myself ; han- 
dle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye 
see me have,' Luke xxiv. 39 : from which it follows, that 
God is now more a man than the angels. Comparison has 
been made with an angel and with a man, nevertheless, it 
is to be understood that God is life in himself, but an angel 
is not life in himself, for he is a recipient of life. That the 
Lord as to each, the Divine and the Divine Human, is life 
in himself, he himself teaches in John : l As the Father hath 
life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in 
himself,' v. 26 : by Father, here, the Lord means the Divine 
in himself; for elsewhere he says, that the Father is in him, 
and that the Father and he are one. 

19. Some, in the christian world, have formed to them- 
selves an idea of God as of something universal; some, as 
of nature in her inmost principles; some, as of a cloud in 
some space of ether ; some, as a bright ray of light ; and 
some, no idea at all ; whilst few [have formed] an idea of 



22 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

God as of a man, when yet God is a man. There are several 
causes that christians have formed to themselves such ideas 
of God : the first is, because from their doctrine they be- 
lieve in three divine persons distinct from each other, in the 
Father as an invisible God, in the Lord also, but as to his 
Human not God. The second is, that they believe God to 
be a spirit, and they think of a spirit as of wind, or of air or 
of ether, when yet every spirit is a man. The third is, that 
a christian, in consequence Gf his faith alone without life, 
has been rendered worldly, and from self-love corporeal, and 
a worldly and corporeal man does not see God except from 
space, thus God as every thing inmost in the universe or in 
nature, consequently as extended, when yet God is not to be 
seen from space, for there is no space in the spiritual world, 
space there is only an appearance grounded on what is like 
it [ex simili]. Every sensual man sees God in like manner, 
because he thinks but little above the speech, and the thought 
of speech says to itself, ' What the eye sees and the hand 
touches, this I know is/ and all other things it dissipates, 
as if they w T ere only things to be talked of. These are the 
causes that in the christian world there is no idea of God as 
man. That there is no such idea, yea, that there is a re- 
pugnance to it, you may know from examining yourself, and 
thinking of the Divine Human, when yet the Human of the 
Lord is divine. Nevertheless, the above ideas of God do 
not appertain so much to the simple, as to the intelligent, 
for many of the latter are blinded by the conceit of their 
own intelligence, and are hence infatuated by science, ac- 
cording to the Lord's words, Matthew xi. 25 : xiii. 13, 14, 
15. But let them know, that all who see God as a man, see 
him from the Lord, the rest from themselves ; and they who 
see from themselves, do not see. 

20 But I will relate what must needs seem wonderful : 
every man, in the idea of his spirit, sees God as a man, even 
he who in the idea of his body sees him like a cloud, a mist, 
air, or ether, even he who has denied that God is a man : 
man is in the idea of his spirit when he thinks abstractedly, 
and in the idea of his body when [he thinks] not abstractedly. 
That every man in the idea of his spirit sees God as a man, 
has been made evident to me from men after death, who are 
then in the ideas of spirit; for man after death becomes a 
spirit, in which case, it is impossible for them to think of 
God otherwise than as of a man : the experiment was made 
whether they could [think] otherwise, and for this purpose 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 23 

they were let into the state in which they were in the world, 
and then they thought of God, some as of something univer- 
sal, some as of nature in her inmost principles, some as of 
a cloud in the midst of ether, some as a bright ray of light, 
and some in other ways; but, instantly, when they came out 
of that state into a state of spirit, they thought of God as of a 
man ; which also they wondered at, and said it was implanted 
[insitum] in every spirit. But evil spirits, who in the world 
have denied God, deny him also after death, nevertheless, 
instead of God they worship some spirit, who, by diabolical 
arts, gains power over the rest. *Jt was said, that to think of 
God as a man is implanted in every spirit: that this is effect- 
ed by influx of the Lord into the interior of their thoughts, 
is evident from this consideration : the angels of all the 
heavens unitedly acknowledge the Lord ; they acknowledge 
his Divine which is called the Father, they see his Divine 
Human, and they are in the Divine Proceeding, for the uni- 
versal angelic heaven is the Divine Proceeding of the Lord ; 
an angel is not an angel from any thing his own, but from 
the Divine which he receives from the Lord ; hence they are 
in the Lord, and therefore, when they think of God, they 
cannot think of any other than of the Lord, in whom they 
are, and from whom they think. Add to this, that the uni- 
versal angelic heaven in its complex, before the Lord, is as 
one man, which may be called the Grand Man, wherefore 
the angels in heaven are in the man, who is the Divine Pro- 
ceeding of the Lord, as was said; and since their thoughts 
have a direction according to the form of heaven, therefore 

i when they think of God, they cannot think otherwise than 
of the Lord. In a word, all the angels of the three heavens 
think of God as of a man, nor can they think otherwise, 
since if they would, thought would cease, and they would fall 
down from heaven. Hence now it is, that it is implanted in 

| every spirit, and also in every man, when he is in the idea 

i of his spirit, to think of God as a man. 

21. It was from this implanted principle, that the most 
ancient people, more than their posterity, worshiped God 
visible under a human form : that they also saw God as a 
man, the Word testifies, as concerning Adam, that he heard 
the voice of Jehovah walking in the garden ; concerning 
Moses, that he spake with Jehovah mouth to mouth ; con- 
cerning Abraham, that he saw Jehovah in the midst of three 
angels; and that Lot spoke with two of them : Jehovah was 
also seen as a man by Hagar, was seen by Gideon, was seen 



24 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

by Joshua, was seen by Daniel as the Ancient of Days, and 
as the Son of Man ; in like manner by John, as the Son of 
Man in the midst of seven candlesticks, also by the other 
prophets. That it was the Lord who was seen by them, he 
himself teaches where he says, ' That Abraham exulted to 
see his day, and that he saw and rejoiced ,' John viii. 58 : 
also, ' That he was before Abraham was, ver. 58: And that 
c he was before the world was,' John xviii. 5, 24. That it 
was not the Father but the Son who was seen, is, because 
the Divine Esse, which is the Father, cannot be seen except 
by the Divine Existere, which is the Divine Human. That 
the Divine Esse, which is called the Father, was not seen, 
the Lord also teaches in John : ' The Father who hath sent 
me, he beareth icitness of me ; ye have neither heard his voice 
at any time, nor seen his shape,' v. 37 : again : ' Not that 
any one hath seen the Father, except he who is with the Father, 
he hath seen the Father,' vi. 46 : and again : ' No one hath 
seen God at any time, the only begotten Son, who is in the 
bosom of the Father, he hath brought him forth to view,' i. 
18 : from which passages it is evident, that the Divine Esse, 
which is the Father, was not seen by the ancients, neither 
could be seen, and yet that it was seen by the Divine Exist- 
ere, which is the Son. Inasmuch as esse is in its existere, 
as the soul is in its body, therefore he who sees the Divine 
Existere or Son, sees also the Divine Esse or Father, which 
the Lord confirms in these words : c Philip said, Lord, show 
us the Father ; Jesus said unto him, have I been so long time 
with you, and hast thou not known me, Philip ? he who hath 
seen me, hath seen the Father, how say est thou then, show us 
the Father?' John xiv. 8, 9 ; by which words it is manifest, 
that the Lord is the Divine Existere, in which is the Divine 
Esse ; thus God-Man, who was seen by the ancients. From 
what has been adduced it follows, that the Word is also to be 
understood according to the sense of the letter, when it says 
that God has a face, that he has eyes and ears, also, that he 
has hands and feet. 

22. Inasmuch as the idea of God as a man is implanted 
in every one, therefore many people and nations have wor- 
shiped gods who either were men or were seen by them as 
men; as Greece, Italy, and some kingdoms under their power, 
[worshiped] Saturn, Jupiter, Neptune, Pluto, Apollo, Mer- 
cury, Juno, Minerva, Diana, Venus and her boy, and others, 
and ascribed to them the government of the universe. The 
cause that they distributed the Divinity among so many per- 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 25 

sons, was, because it was implanted in them to see God as a 
man, and therefore to see all the attributes, properties and 
qualities of God, and thence, also the virtues, affections, in- 
clinations, and sciences, as persons. It was, also, from some- 
thing implanted, that the inhabitants of the lands round about 
Canaan, and likewise of the regions within it, worshiped 
Baalim, Astoroth, Beelzebub, Chemosh, Milcolm, Molech, 
and others, many of whom had lived as men. It is, also, 
from something implanted, that, at this day, in gentile Chris- 
tendom, saints are worshiped as gods, that the knees are 
bended before their idols, that they are kissed, that the head 
is made bare before them in the ways where they are expos- 
ed, and that they adore before their sepulchres ; yea, even 
in the presence of the pope, the shoes of whose feet, and, in 
some cases, his footsteps, are pressed with kisses ; and they 
would have saluted him as a god, if religion had allowed it. 
These and several other particulars are from something im- 
planted, inclining men to worship a god whom they see, and 
not any thing aerial, for this is smoke to them. But the idea 
of God as a man, flowing in out of heaven, is perverted with 
many, insomuch, that either a man of the world, or an idol, 
is worshiped in the place of God ; comparatively, as the 
white light of the sun is turned into colors not beautiful, 
and his summer heat into fetid odors, according to the ob- 
jects into which they fall. But that the idea of God is made 
an idea, of a little cloud, of a mist, or of the inmost thing of 
nature, is from the causes above adduced, and has place 
amongst christians, but rarely amongst other nations who 
are in any light of reason, as amongst the Africans and many 
others. 

23. That God is Man and that the Lord is that Man, is 
manifest from all things which are in the heavens, and which 
are beneath the heavens. In the heavens, all things which 
proceed from the Lord, in the greatest and in the least, 
are either in a human form, or refer themselves to 
the human form ; the universal heaven is in a human form, 
every society of heaven is in a human form, every angel is a 
human form, and, likewise, every spirit beneath the heavens : 
and it has been revealed to me, that all things, the least as 
well as greatest, which proceed immediately from the Lord, 
are in that form, for what proceeds from God is a resem- 
blance of him. Hence it is, that it js said of the man Adam 
and Eve, ; that they ivere created into the image and likeness 
of God,' Gen, i, 26, 27. Hence, also, it is, that the angels 
3 



26 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

in the heavens, because they are recipients of the Divine 
which proceeds from the Lord, are men of astonishing 
beauty, but spirits in the hells, because they do not receive 
the Divine which proceeds from the Lord, are devils, who, in 
the light of heaven, do not appear as men, but as monsters. 
From this consideration it is, that every one in the spiritual 
world is known from his human form, how much he partakes 
from the Lord [trahit a Domino.'] Hence now it may be 
manifest, that the Lord is the only man, and that every one 
is a man according to reception of divine good and divine 
truth from him. In fine, he who sees God as a man, sees 
God, because he sees the Lord : the Lord, also, says, ' He 
who seeth the Son, and believeth in him, hath eternal life/ John 
vi. 40 : to see the Son is to see him with the spirit, because 
it is said, also, to those who have not seen him in the world. 
24. It was said, that the Lord is the only Man, and that all 
are men according to reception of divine good and divine 
truth from him. The reason why the Lord is the only Man 
is, because he is Life itself, but others, because they are men 
from him, are recipients of life. The distinction between 
the man who is life, and the man who is a recipient of life, 
is like that between uncreated and created, and like that be- 
tween infinite and finite, which distinction is such as to admit 
of no ratio ; for there is no ratio given between infinite and 
finite, thus there is none between God as a Man, and another 
as a man, whether he be angel, or spirit, or man in the world. 
That the Lord is life, he himself teaches in John : ' The 
Word was with God, and God was the Word, in him 
was life, and the life was the light of men, and the Word was 
made flesh,' i. 1, 4, 14 : again : l As the Father hath life in 
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself,' v. 
26 : ao-ain : ' As the living Father hath sent me, and 1 also 
live by the Father,' vi. 57 : again : c / am the resurrection 
and the life,' xi. 25 : again : ' 1 am the way, the truth, and the 
life/ xiv. 6. Because the Lord is life, therefore in other pas- 
sages of the Word, he is called the Bread of Life, the Light 
of Life, and the Tree of Life, also, the Alive and Liv- 
ing God. Since he is life, and every man is a recipient of 
life from him, therefore, he also teaches that he gives life 
and vivifies ; as in John : ' As the Father vivifies, so also the 
Son vivifies,' v. 21 : again : • 1 am the bread of God which 
cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the world/ vi. 
33 : again : ' Because 1 live, ye shall live also/ xiv. 19 : and 
in many passages, that he giveth life to those who believe in 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 27 

him: hence, also, God is called 'a Fountain of Life,' Ps. 
xxxvi. 9 ; and in other places, Creator, Maker, Former, also, 
Potter, and we the clay, and the work of his hands. Be- 
cause God is life, it follows that in him ive live, move, and are. 

25. Life viewed in itself, which is God, cannot create 
another, who shall be life alone ; for the life which is God is 
uncreate, is what holds all things together, [est continens] 
and is not separable; hence it is, that God is one : but the 
life which is God, can create forms from substances which 
are not lives, in which it can be, and give the appearance as 
if they lived ; these forms are men, which, as being recepta- 
cles of life, could not, in the first creation, be any thing but 
images and likenesses of God ; images from the reception of 
truth, and likenesses from the reception of good ; for life 
and its recipient adapt themselves together like what is active 
and what is passive, but do not mix together. Hence it is, 
that human forms, which are recipient of life, do not live 
from themselves, but from God, who alone is life ; wherefore, 
as is known, all the good of love and all the truth of faith is 
from God, and nothing from man ; for if man had the 
smallest portion of life as his own, he might will and do 
good from himself, also understand and believe truth from 
himself, and thus establish his own merit, when yet, if he 
believes this, then the form recipient of life closes itself 
above, is perverted, and intelligence perishes. Good and its 
love, together with truth and its faith, are the life which is 
God, for God is good itself, and truth itself; wherefore God 
dwells in those things with man. From these considerations it 
also follows, that man of himself is nothing, and that he is only 
so far something as he receives it from the Lord, and at the 
same time acknowledges that it is not his own but the Lord's, 
in which case the Lord gives him to be something although 
not from himself but from the Lord. 

26. It appears to man as if he lived from himself, but it is 
a fallacy ; for if it were not a fallacy, man might love God 
from himself, and be wise from himself. The reason why it 
appears as if life was in man, is, because it flows in from the 
Lord into his inmost principles, which are removed from the 
sight of his thought, and thus from perception ; also, be- 
cause the principal cause, which is life, and the instrumental 
cause, which is recipient of life, act as one cause, and this is 
felt in the instrumental cause, which is recipient, thus in 
man as in himself: the case, in this respect, is altogether as 
the sensation of light in the eye, from which is sight, of 



28 ATKANASIAN CREED. 

sound in the ear, from which is hearing, of volatile parts in 
the air in the nostril, from which is smelling, and of the soluble 
parts of foods on the tongue, from which is taste, when yet 
the eyes, the ears, the nostrils, and tongue, are recipient or- 
ganized substances, thus instrumental causes, whilst light, 
sound, the volatile parts in the air, and the soluble parts on 
the tongue, are the principal causes, which act as one cause; 
that is called principal which acts, and that is called instru- 
mental which suffers itself to be acted upon. He who ex- 
amines the subject more deeply, may know that man, as to 
all and singular things appertaining to him, is an organ of 
life, and that what produces sense and perception flows in 
from an extraneous source, and that the life itself causes man 
to feel and to perceive as from himself. Another reason 
why it appears as if life was in man, is, because the divine 
love is such, that what is its own, it wills to communicate to 
man as his, [velit esse hominis] but still teaches that it is not 
man's. The Lord also wills, that man should think and will, 
and thence should speak and act, as from himself, but that still 
he should acknowledge that it is not from himself, otherwise 
he cannot be reformed. 

27. If it be said and thought that life itself is God, or that 
God is life itself, unattended with any idea of what life is, 
in such case, it is not understood what God is, beyond those 
expressions. In the thought of man there are two ideas, one 
abstracted, which is spiritual, and one not abstracted, which 
is natural : the abstract idea, which is spiritual, concerning 
the life which is God, is, that it is love itself, and that it is 
wisdom itself, and that love is of wisdom, and that wisdom is 
of love. But the idea not abstracted, which is natural, con- 
cerning the life which is God, is, that his love is as fire, and 
that his wisdom is as light, and that each together is as efful- 
gent radiance \Juhar\ ; this natural idea is taken from cor- 
respondence, for fire corresponds to love, and light corres- 
ponds to wisdom, wherefore, fire, in the Word, signifies love, 
and light signifies wisdom, and whilst a preacher preaches 
from the Word, he also prays, that heavenly fire may enkin- 
dle [all] hearts, and then is understood divine love, and that 
heavenly light may enlighten [all] minds, and then is under- 
stood divine wisdom. The divine love, which in the divine 
wisdom is life itself, which is God, cannot be conceived of in 
its essence, for it is infinite, and so transcends [all human 
apprehension], but it may be conceived of in its appearance : 
the Lord appears before the eyes of the angels as a sun, and 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



29 



from that sun heat proceeds and light proceeds; the sun is 
divine love, the heat is divine love proceeding, which is 
called divine good, and the light is divine wisdom proceeding, 
which is called divine truth. Nevertheless, it is not allowed 
to have an idea of the life which is God, as of fire, or of heat, 
or of light, unless in it there be at the same time an idea of 
love and of wisdom, thus that the divine love is as fire, and 
that the divine wisdom is as light, and that the divine love, 
together with divine wisdom is as an effulgent radiance, [ju- 
tar.] For God is a perfect Man, in face as a Man, and in 
body as a Man, without any difference as to form, but as to 
essence ; his essence is, that he is love itself, and that he is 
wisdom itself, thus life itself. 

28. An idea of life, which is God, cannot be had, unless 
an idea of degrees be also obtained, by which life descends 
from inmost to its ultimates. There is an inmost degree of 
life, and there is an ultimate degree of life, and there are 
intermediate degrees of life, the distinction of these is, as 
between things prior and things posterior, for a posterior 
degree exists from a prior one, and so on ; and the difference 
is, as between things less and more common, for what is of 
a prior degree, is less common, and what is of a posterior 
one, is more so. Such degrees of life are in every man from 
creation, and they are opened according to the reception of 
life from the Lord ; in some is opened the degree next to the 
ultimate [penultimus], in some the middle degree, and in 
some the inmost : the men, in whom is opened the inmost 
degree, become, after death, angels of the inmost or third 
heaven ; they, in whom is opened the middle degree, become, 
after death, angels of the middle or second heaven ; but they, 
in whom is opened the degree next to the ultimate, become, 
after death, angels of the ultimate heaven. Those degrees 
are called degrees of the life of man, but they are degrees 
of his wisdom and love, because they are opened according 
to the reception of wisdom and love, thus, of life from the 
Lord. Such degrees of life are, also, in every organ, viscus 
and member of the body, and they act as one with the 
degrees of life in the brains by influx, the skins, the cartilages 
and the bones constituting their ultimate degree. The reason 
why such degrees are in man, is, because such are the de- 
grees of the life which proceeds from the Lord, but in the 
Lord they are life, whereas in man they are recipients of life. 
It is, however, to be noted, that in the Lord there are degrees 
still superior, and that all, both the supreme and the ultimate, 
3* 



30 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



are life, for the Lord teaches that he is life, and likewise, 
that he has flesh and bones. But concerning these degrees, 
and concerning continuous degrees, see the work on Heaven 
and Hell, n. 33, 34, 38, 39, 208, 209, 211, 425, where they 
are more fully described, the knowledge of which it will be 
expedient to draw forth thence for use in what follows. 

29. Inasmuch as God is life, it follows that God is un- 
created : the reason why he is uncreated, is, because life 
cannot be created, but it can create ; for to be created is to 
exist from another, and if life exist from another, there would 
be another who would be life, and this life would be life in 
itself; and if this first were not life in itself, it would either 
be from another or from itself, and life from itself cannot be 
predicated, because from itself involves birth, and that birth 
would be from nothing, and from nothing, nothing can be 
born. This first, which in itself is, and from which all 
things have been created, is God, who, from esse in himself 
is called Jehovah. That this is the case, reason may see, 
especially if it be illustrated by things created. Now, whereas 
he is not, unless he also exist, hence esse and existere in 
God are one, for whilst he is he exists, and whilst he exists 
he is. This, therefore, is the life itself which is God, and 
which is a Man. 

30. That all things are from the life itself which is God, 
and which is a Man, may be illustrated from the man who 
has been created, in that he, as to his ultimate principles, as 
to his middle principles, and as to his inmost principles, is a 
man ; for the man, who in the world, as to his life, has been 
merely corporeal, thus stupid, after the rejection of the ma- 
terial body appears still in the spiritual world as a man ; and 
the man, who in the world, as to his life, has been merely 
sensual or natural, thus who has known little about heaven, 
although much about the world, he, after death still appears 
as a man; the man, who in the world, as to life, has been 
rational, thus who has thought well from natural lumen, he, 
after death, when he becomes a spirit, appears as a man ; 
the man, who in the world, as to his life, has been spiritual, 
he, after death, when he becomes an angel, appears as man, 
perfect according to the reception of life from the Lord ; the 
man, with whom the third degree is open, thus who in the 
world, as to life, has been celestial, he, after death, when he 
becomes an angel, appears as a man in all perfection. The 
life itself appertaining to him is a man, as well the sensual 
and natural, as the rational, the spiritual, and the celestial; 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 31 

the degrees of life are so called ; the man, in whom those 
degrees exist, is only a recipient. And as it is in the 
smallest types, so it is in the greatest; the universal angelic 
heaven in a whole complex is a man ; every heaven by itself, 
the first, the second and third, is a man ; every society of the 
heavens, greater and less, is a man ; yea, the church in the 
earths, in common, is a man ; also, all congregations, which 
are called churches by themselves, are men : it is said the 
church, and thereby are understood all with whom the 
church is, in the complex; so the church in the earths ap- 
pears to the angels of heaven. That there is the appear- 
ance, is, because the life which is from the Lord is a man: 
life from the Lord is love and wisdom, hence such as the re- 
ception of love and wisdom from the Lord is, such is the 
man. These things first testify, that all things were cre- 
ated from the life, which is God, and which is a man. 

31. That all things are from the life itself, which is God, 
and which is wisdom and love, may, also, be illustrated by 
things created, whilst they are viewed from order. For it is 
from order that the angelic heavens, consisting of thousands 
and thousands of societies, act in unity by love to the Lord, 
[in Dominum] and by love towards the neighbor, and that they 
are kept in order by divine truths, which are the laws of order ; 
and likewise, that the hells beneath them, which, also, are dis- 
tinguished into thousands and thousands of congregations, are 
kept in order by judgments and punishments, so that although 
they are hatreds and insanities, still they cannot occasion the 
least injury to the heavens. It is, also, from order, that be- 
tween the heavens and the hells, there is an equilibrium, in 
which man is in the world, and in which he is led, if by the 
Lord, to heaven, if by himself, to hell ; for it is a law of 
order, that man shall act what he acts from freedom accord- 
ing to reason. Since so many myriads of myriads of men, 
since the creation of the world, have poured in thither, and 
are perpetually pouring in like streams, and every one is of a 
dissimilar genius and love, they could not have been consoci- 
ated together into one, unless God was one, who is life itself, 
which life is wisdom itself and love itself, and thence order 
itself: So much respecting heaven. But in the world, divine 
order appears from the sun, the moon, the stars, and the 
planets ; the sun, to appearance, makes years, days and 
hours, and likewise the times of the year, which are spring, 
summer, autumn and winter, and the times of the day, which 
are morning, mid-day, evening and night, and animates all 



32 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

things of the earth, according to the reception of his heat in 
light, and of his light in heat, and, according to reception, 
opens, disposes and prepares bodies and matters, which are 
in the earth, and upon the earth, to receive influx from the 
spiritual world : hence, in the time of spring, by the union 
of heat and light then, the fowls of heaven and the animals 
of the earth return into the love of prolification, and into the 
science of all things of it, whilst vegetables [return] into the 
endeavor and act of producing leaves, flowers, and fruits, 
and therein seeds, to perpetuate their kind to eternity, and to 
multiply it ad infinitum. It is, also, from order, that the 
earth produces vegetables, and that vegetables nourish ani- 
mals, and that both the latter and the former are of use to 
man, for food, for raiment, and for pleasure ; and whereas 
man is the creature in whom God dwells, all things thus re- 
turn to God from whom they are. From these considerations 
it is evident, that created things succeed in such an order, 
that one is for another, and that they are perpetual ends 
which are uses, and that the ends which are uses are con- 
stantly so directed, that they may return to God from whom 
they are. These things now testify, that all things were cre- 
ated from life itself, which is God, and which is wisdom it- 
self ; and they likewise testify that the universe of creation 
is full of God. [plenum Deo.] 

32. Inasmuch as God is uncreated, he is, also, eternal ; 
for the life itself, which is God, is life in itself, not from it- 
self, nor from nothing, thus it is without birth; and what is 
without birth is from eternity, and is eternal : but an idea [of 
what is] without birth cannot be given with the natural man, 
thus neither can the idea of God from eternity [be given] ; 
but it is given with the spiritual [man] : the thought of the 
natural man cannot be separated and abstracted from the 
idea of time, which inheres [in man] from nature, in which 
he is : thus neither can it be separated and abstracted from 
the idea of birth, because birth is to him a beginning in time ; 
the appearance of the sun's progression has impressed on the 
natural man that idea. But the thought of the spiritual man 
is abstracted from the idea of time, because it is elevated 
above nature, and instead of the idea of time there is an 
idea of state of life, and instead of the duration of time 
there is an idea of state of thought from affection, which 
constitutes life : for the sun in the angelic heaven neither 
rises nor sets, nor makes years and days, like the sun in the 
world ; hence it is that the angels of heaven, because they 



ATHAN.ASIAN CREED. 33 

are in spiritual ideas, think abstractedly from time; where- 
fore their idea concerning God from eternity does not take 
any thing from birth, or from beginning, but from state, that 
it is eternal, thus that every thing which is God, and which 
proceeds from God, is eternal, that is, divine in itself. That 
this is so has been given [me] to perceive by an elevation 
above a natural idea into a spiritual. From these considera- 
tions it is now evident, that God, who is uncreated, is also 
eternal ; likewise, that it is impossible to think that nature is 
from eternity, or in time from itself, but that it is possible to 
think that God is from eternity, and that nature, with time, is 
from God. 

33. Since God is eternal, he is, also, infinite ; but as there 
is a natural idea and a spiritual idea of what is eternal, so 
likewise of what is infinite : a natural idea of what is eternal 
is from time, but a spiritual idea of it is not from time : a 
natural idea also, of what is infinite is from space, but a 
spiritual idea of it is not from space. For as life is not 
nature, so the two properties of nature, which are time 
and space, are not lives, for they are from the life which 
is God, being created with nature. The natural idea of the 
infinite God, which is from space, is, that he fills the uni- 
verse from end to end, but from this idea concerning the in- 
finite there results a thought, that the inmost of nature is 
God, and thus that he is extended, and every thing extended 
is of matter. Thus because the natural idea does not at 
all agree with the idea of life, of wisdom and love, which is 
God, therefore what is infinite must be viewed from a spir- 
itual idea, in which, as there is nothing of time, so there is 
nothing of space, because there is nothing of nature : it is 
from a spiritual idea, that the divine love is infinite, and that 
the divine wisdom is infinite, and since the divine love and 
the divine wisdom are the life which is God, therefore divine 
life is also infinite, hence, then, God is infinite. That the di- 
vine wisdom is infinite, may be manifest from the wisdom of 
the angels of the third heaven ; these, since they excel all 
others in wisdom, perceive that no ratio is given between 
theirs and the divine wisdom of the Lord, because no ratio 
is given between what is infinite and what is finite ; they say, 
also, that the first degree of wisdom is to see and acknowl- 
edge that this is the case : it is similar with the divine love. 
Moreover, the angels, like men, are forms recipient of life, 
thus recipient of wisdom and of love from the Lord, and 
these forms are from substances which are without life, thus 



34 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

in themselves dead, and between what is dead and what is 
alive there is no given ratio. But how what is finite receives 
what is infinite, may be illustrated from the light and heat of 
the sun of the world : the light itself and the heat itself from 
that sun are not material, but still they affect material sub- 
stances, the light by modifying them, and the heat by chang- 
ing their states : the divine wisdom of the Lord, is, likewise, 
light, and the divine love of the Lord, is, likewise, heat, but 
spiritual heat and light, because [they proceed] from the Lord 
as a sun, which is divine love, and at the same time divine 
wisdom : but light and heat from the sun of the world are 
natural, because that sun is fire and not love. 

34. Inasmuch as God is infinite, he is, also, omnipotent, 
for omnipotence is infinite power. The omnipotence of 
God shines forth from the universe, which is the visible 
heaven and habitable orb, which are the great works of an 
omnipotent creator : in like manner, the creation and sup- 
port of all things which are in the visible heaven and on the 
habitable orb, testify that they are from divine omnipotence, 
whilst their order and mutual respect to ends, from first to 
last, testify that they are from divine wisdom. The omnipo- 
tence of God shines forth, also, from the heaven which is 
above or within our visible heaven, and from the orb there, 
which is inhabited by angels, as ours is by men ; in that orb 
are stupendous testimonies of the divine omnipotence, which, 
as having been seen by me, and revealed to me, it is allowed 
to mention : in that orb are all the men, who from the first 
creation of the world have departed out of it, who, after 
their decease, are also men as to form, but are spirits as to 
essence. Spirits are affections which are of love, and thus, 
also, thoughts ; spirits of heaven affections of the love of 
good, and spirits of hell affections of the love of evil : the 
good affections, which are angels, dwell upon an orb which is 
called heaven, and the evil affections, which are spirits of 
hell, dwell at a depth beneath those : the orb is one, but di- 
vided as into expanses, one below another ; the expanses are 
six ; in the highest dwell the angels of the third heaven, and 
beneath these the angels of the second heaven, and beneath 
these the angels of the first: below these latter dwell the 
spirits of the first hell, beneath them the spirits of the se- 
cond hell, and beneath these the spirits of the third ; all 
things are so arranged in order, that the evil affections, which 
are spirits of hell, are held in bonds by the good affections, 
which are angels of heaven ; the spirits of the lowest hell by 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



35 



the angels of the highest heaven, the spirits of the middle hell 
by the°angels of the middle heaven, and the spirits of the 
first hell by the angels of the first heaven ; from such opposi- 
tion the affections are held in equilibrium, as in the scale of 
a balance. Such heavens and such hells are innumerable, 
distinguished into companies and societies according to the 
genera and species of all affections, and these are in order 
and in connexion according to their affinities nearer and more 
remote : as it is in the heavens, so in the hells. This order 
and this connexion of affections is known to the Lord alone, 
and the orderly arrangement [ordinatio] of so many various 
affections, as there have been men from the first creation, and 
as there will be hereafter, is of infinite wisdom, and at the 
same time of infinite power. That the divine power is infi- 
nite, or that it is omnipotence, is very manifest from this cir- 
cumstance in the other world, that neither the angels of hea- 
ven nor the devils of hell have the least portion of power 
from themselves ; if they had the least portion heaven would 
fall to pieces, hell would become a chaos, and every man 
would perish with them. 

35. That all power belongs to God and none to a man or 
angel, is, because God alone is life, and a man and an angel 
is only recipient of life, and it is the life which acts, and 
the recipient of life which is acted upon. Every one may 
see, that a recipient of life cannot at all act from itself, but 
that what it acts is from the life which is God : nevertheless, 
it can act as from itself; for this can be given to it, and also 
is given, as has been said above. If man does not live from 
himself, it follows, that he does not think and will from him- 
self, neither does he speak and act from himself, but from 
God, who alone is life. That this is the case appears as a 
paradox, because man has no other sensation, than that these 
things are in himself, and thus are done from himself, but 
still he acknowledges, whilst he speaks from faith, that every 
thing good and true is from God, and every thing evil and 
false is from the devil ; and yet, whatsoever a man thinks, 
wills, speaks and acts, refer themselves to what is good and 
true, or to what is evil and false : hence it is, that man says 
within himself, or is taught to say by the rulers of the 
church, when he does good, that he was led of God, and 
when he does evil, that he was led of the devil : a man, a 
preacher, also, prays that his thought, his discourse, and his 
tongue, may be led by the spirit of God, and sometimes, 
also, says after preaching, that he has spoken from the spirit; 
some [preachers] likewise, perceive it in themselves. I 



S6 ATHAN^f?ij\N CREED. 

myself, can als6 testify before the world, that all things of 
my thought and will have flowed in, goods and truths through 
heaven from the Lord, and evils and falses from hell, and 
that for a long course of time it has been given me to per- 
ceive it. The angels of the superior heavens have manifest 
sensation of this, and the wisest of them are not even 
desirous to think and will as from themselves. But, on the 
other hand, infernal genii and spirits altogether deny it, and 
are angry when it is said; nevertheless, by many things it 
was shown to the life that it was so, but they were after- 
wards indignant. But because this appears as a paradox to 
many, it is important that from some idea of the understand- 
ing it may be seen how it is effected, that so it may be ac- 
knowledged that it is effected : the thing in itself is as fol- 
lows : from the divine love of the Lord, which appears in 
the angelic heaven as a sun, light proceeds and heat pro- 
ceeds ; light is the life of his divine wisdom, and heat is the 
life of his divine love ; this spiritual heat which is love, and 
that spiritual light which is wisdom, flow in into the subjects 
recipient of life, no otherwise than as natural heat and natu- 
ral light from the sun of the world flow in into subjects not 
recipient of life; and whereas, light only modifies the sub- 
stances into which it flows in, and heat only changes their 
state, it follows, that if those subjects were animated, they 
would be sensible of those changes in themselves, and would 
suppose them to be from themselves, when yet they depart 
with the sun, and return with the sun. Now, since the life 
of the divine wisdom of the Lord is light, therefore the Lord 
in many places in the Word is called light, and it is said, in 
John, ' The Word was with God, and God was the Word; 
in him was life, and the life was the light of men, 1 i. 1,2, 3. 
From these considerations it is now evident, that to God 
belongs infinite power, because he is the all appertaining to 
all. But how an evil person can think, will, speak and do 
things evil, when God alone is life, will be shown in what 
follows. 

36. Since such is the divine omnipotence, that man can- 
not of himself think and will, and thence speak and act, but 
from the life which is God, it is asked, why then is not every 
man saved ? But he who hence concludes that every one is 
saved, and if not that he is in no fault, does not know the 
laws of divine order respecting man's reformation, regenera- 
tion, and consequent salvation. The laws of that order are 
called laws of the divine providence : these the natural mind 
cannot know, unless it be illustrated; and because man does 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 37 

not know them, and, therefore, forms conclusions concern- 
ing the divine providence from contingencies in the world, 
by which he falls into fallacies, and thence into errors, out 
of which, afterwards, he can with difficulty extricate him- 
self, therefore, it is expedient that they should be revealed. 
But, before we proceed to their discovery, it is of concern 
that it should be known, that the divine providence operates 
in singular the things appertaining to man, and in the most 
singular of all, for his eternal salvation, since the salvation 
of man was the end of the creation of heaven and earth ; 
for the end was, that from the human race might be formed 
heaven, in which God might dwell, as in his own very house ; 
wherefore, the salvation of man is the all in all of the Divine 
Providence. But the Divine Providence proceeds so se- 
cretly, that man scarce sees a vestige of it, and yet it is ac- 
tive in the most singular things respecting him, from infancy 
to old age in the world, and afterwards to eternity, and in 
every thing most singular it is eternity which is regarded. 
Because divine wisdom in itself is nothing but an end, 
therefore Providence acts from an end, in an end, and to an 
end ; the end is, that man may become wisdom and may be- 
come love, and thus a habitation and image of the divine 
life. But, because the natural mind, unless it be illustrated, 
cannot comprehend why the Divine Providence, whilst it is 
active in the work of salvation only, and in the most singu- 
lar things of the progress of the life of man, does not lead 
all to heaven, when yet, from love, it is willing to lead them, 
and is omnipotent, therefore, in what now follows, the laws 
of order shall be opened, which are laws of the Divine Pro- 
vidence, by which, as I hope, the mind not before illustrated 
will be withdrawn from fallacies, if it is willing to be with- 
drawn. 

37. The laws of order, which are called the laws of Divine 
Providence, are the following. I. That man should not feel 
and perceive and thence know any other than that life is in 
him, thus that he thinks and wills from himself, and thence 
speaks and acts from himself; but yet, that he ought to ac- 
knowledge and believe, that the truths which he thinks and 
speaks, and the goods which he wills and does, are from God, 
thus as from himself. II. That man should act what he acts 
from freedom according to reason, but that still he should 
acknowledge and believe that the very freedom which he 
has is from God ; in like manner, reason itself, viewed in 
itself, which is called rationality. Ill That to think and 
4 



38 ATHANASlAN CREED. 

speak what is true, and to will and to do what is good, from 
freedom according to reason, is not from himself, but from 
God ; and that to think and to speak what is false, and to 
will and to do what is evil, from freedom, is not from him- 
self, but from hell ; yet so, that what is false and evil is from 
that source, but the freedom itself viewed in itself, and the 
faculty itself of thinking, of willing, of speaking, and of 
doing, viewed in themselves, are from God. IV. That the 
understanding and will of man ought not in the least to be 
compelled by another, since all compulsion by another takes 
away freedom, but that man himself should compel himself, 
for to compel himself is from freedom. V. That man does 
not know, from sense and perception in himself, in what 
manner what is good and true flow in from God, and in what 
manner what is evil and false flow in from hell ; neither that 
he should see in what manner the Divine Providence oper- 
ates in favor of good against evil ; for thus man would not 
act from freedom according to reason as from himself; it is 
sufficient, therefore, that he knows and acknowledges those 
things from the Word and from the doctrine of the church. 
VI. That man is not reformed by external means, but by 
internal means; by external means is meant by miracles and 
visions, also, by fears and punishments ; by internal means is 
meant by truths and goods from the Word, and from the 
doctrine of the church, also, by looking to the Lord, for 
these means enter by an internal way, and remove the evils 
and falses which inwardly reside ; but external means enter 
by an external way, and do not remove evils and falses, but 
shut them in : nevertheless, man is further reformed by ex- 
ternal means, when he has before been reformed by internal 
means; but a man not reformed, is only withheld by external 
means, which are fears and punishments, from speaking and 
doincr the evils and falses which he thinks and which he 
wills? VII. That man is not let into the truths of faith and 
the goods of love from God, only so far as he can be kept in 
them, even to the end of life: for it is better that man should 
be constantly evil, than that he should be good and after- 
wards evil, since, in the latter case, he becomes profane: the 
permission of evil is principally from hence. VIII. That 
God is continually withdrawing man from evils, so far as 
man, from freedom, is willing to be withdrawn : that, so far 
as man can be withdrawn from evils, so far he is led of God 
to good, thus to heaven ; but so far as man cannot be with- 
drawn from evils, so far he cannot be led of God to good, 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 39 

thus to heaven: for so far as man is withdrawn from evils, so 
far he does good from God, which in itself is good ; but so 
far as he is not withdrawn from evils, so far he does good 
from himself, which in itself has evil. IX. That God does 
not immediately teach man truths, either from himself or by 
angels, but that he teaches by the Word, by preaching, by 
reading, and by discourse and communication with others, 
and thus by private thought from those things ; and that 
man, in such case is illustrated according to the affection of 
truth from use; otherwise man would not act as from him- 
self. X. That man, from his own proper prudence, has led 
himself to eminence and to opulence, whilst they seduce : 
for man is led of the Divine Providence to such things as 
do not seduce, and which are serviceable to eternal life : for 
all things of the Divine Providence with man respect what 
is eternal, because the life, which is God, by which man is 
man, is eternal. 

38. From the above laws it is evident, that the Lord can- 
not lead man to heaven except by them, although he has 
divine love from which he wills, and divine wisdom from 
which he knows all things, and divine power, which is 
omnipotence, from which he can [effect] what he wills : for 
the stated laws of providence are laws of order respecting 
reformation and regeneration, thus respecting the salvation 
of man, contrary to which the Lord cannot act, since to 
act contrary to them would be to act contrary to his own 
wisdom and contrary to his own love, thus contrary to him- 
self. As to what concerns the first law, which is, that man 
from sense and perception should know no other than that 
life is in him, but that still he should acknowledge that the 
goods and truths which are of love and faith, which he 
thinks, wills, speaks, and does, are not from him, but from 
the Lord ; this law supposes the second, which is, that man 
has freedom, and that this should appear as his, but yet that 
he should acknowledge that it is not his, but the Lord's with 
him: this law follows from the former, because freedom 
makes one with life, for without freedom man cannot feel 
and perceive that life is, as it were, in him, this being felt 
and perceived from freedom ; for from freedom it appears to 
man, that every thing which the life acts is as his own and 
proper to him, since freedom is the power of thinking, of 
willing, of speaking and doing, from himself, in this case as 
from himself; and principally [it is the power] of willing, 
for a man says, I can what I will, and I will what I can; that 



40 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

is, I am in freedom : who, also, cannot think from freedom 
that one thing is good and another evil; also, that one thing 
is true and another false ? wherefore, freedom was given to 
man together with his life, nor is it ever taken away from 
him, for so far as it is taken away or diminished, so far man 
feels and perceives that he does not live, but another in him, 
and so far the delight of all things of his life is taken away 
and diminished, for he becomes a slave. That man knows 
no other, from sense and perception, than that life is in him, 
thus as his own, has no need of any other confirmation than 
experience itself; who feels and perceives any otherwise, 
than that he thinks from himself when he thinks, that he wills 
from himself when he wills, and that he speaks and acts from 
himself when he speaks and acts ? but it is from a law of 
Divine Providence, that man should know no otherwise, 
since without that sense and without that perception, he can- 
not receive any thing to himself, appropriate any thing to 
himself, nor produce any thing from himself, thus he would 
not be recipient of life from the Lord, and an agent of life 
from the Lord, but would be as an automaton, or as an 
image, standing, without understanding or will, with the 
hands hanging down, in expectation of influx, which would 
not be given, since the life, in consequence of non-reception 
as by man, and appropriation, would not be retained, but 
would be transfluent, whereby man, from being alive, would 
become as dead, and from a rational soul, not rational, thus 
either a brute or a stock; for he would be without delight of 
life, which delight every one has from reception as from 
himself, from appropriation, and from production as of him- 
self; and yet delight and life act as one, for take away all 
the delight of life, and you will grow cold and die. If it 
was not from a law of Divine Providence, that man should 
feel and perceive as if life and every thing appertaining to it 
was in him, and should only acknowledge that good and 
truth are not from him, but from the Lord, then nothing 
would be imputed to man, neither good nor truth, thus 
neither love nor faith ; and if nothing was to be imputed, 
neither would the Lord have commanded in the Word, that 
man should do good and shun evil, and that if he did good, 
heaven would be his, but if evil, hell would be his ; yea, 
neither would there be heaven nor hell, since, without that 
perception, man would not be man, thus would not be the 
habitation of the Lord ; for the Lord wills to be loved by 
man as by him ; thus the Lord dwells with man in what is 



ATttANASIAN CREED. 41 

his own, which he has given to him to the intent that he 
may be loved reciprocally ; for divine love consists in this, 
that what is its own, it wills should be man's which would 
not be the case unless man felt and perceived what is from 
the Lord as his own. If it was not from a divine law, that 
man from sense and perception should know no other than 
that life was in him, there would no end be given with man, 
for the sake of which [he should act] : this end is given with 
him, because the end from which [he acts] appears as in 
him ; the end from which [he acts] is his love which is his 
life, and the end for the sake of which [he acts] is the de- 
light of his love or life, and the effect in which the end pre- 
sents itself is use : the end, for the sake of which [he acts] 
which is the delight of the love of life, is felt and perceived 
in man, because the end from which [he acts] gives him to 
feel and perceive it, which end is, as was said, the love, 
which is life : but the Lord gives to that man, who acknow- 
ledges that all things of his life are from him, the delight and 
blessedness of his love, so far as he acknowledges, and so far 
as he performs uses ; thus whilst man, by acknowledgment 
and by faith from love, as from himself, ascribes to the Lord 
all things of his life, the Lord, in his turn, ascribes to man 
the good of his life, which is with all satisfaction and blessed- 
ness, and likewise grants that from an interior principle he 
should exquisitely feel and perceive it in himself as his own, 
and the more exquisitely in proportion as man, from the 
heart, wills what by faith he acknowledges. Perception, 
then is reciprocal; grateful to the Lord that he is in man, 
and man in him ; and satisfactory to man that he is in the 
Lord, and the Lord in him. Such is the union of the Lord 
with man, and of man with the Lord, by love. 

39. The reason why man feels and perceives as if life was 
in him, is, because the life of the Lord in him is as the light 
and heat of the sun in a subject, which [light and heat] are 
not of the subject, but are of the sun in it, for they retire 
with the sun, and when they are in the subject, they are, to 
appearance, all its own, [for] from the light is its color as 
its own, and from the heat is the life of its vegetation as its 
own : but this is much more the case with the light and heat 
from the sun of the spiritual world, which is the Lord, whose 
light is the light of life, and heat is the heat of life, for the 
sun from which they proceed is the divine love of the Lord, 
but man is the recipient subject; this light and this heat 
never recede from the recipient, who is man, and when they 
4* 



42 ATHANASIAN CREED, 

are with man, they are, to appearance, all his own ; for from 
light he has the faculty of understanding, and from heat the 
faculty of willing : from this [circumstance] that light and 
heat are as all in the recipient, although they are not his, 
and from this [consideration] that they never recede ; also, 
from this, that they affect his inmost principles, which are 
remote from the sight of his understanding and from the 
sense of his will, it is manifest that it must needs appear as if 
those things were implanted, thus as in him, and consequently, 
that they are brought into effect as from him : hence, now it 
is, that man knows no other than that he thinks from him- 
self, and that he wills from himself, when yet, the smallest 
portion [of thought and will is] not from himself, since these 
cannot be united to the recipient so as to be his own, in like 
manner, as the light of the sun cannot be united to a subject 
of the earth, and become material as it is; the same is true 
concerning heat. But the light of life and the heat of life 
affect and fill recipients altogether according to the quality of 
the acknowledgment that they are not his, but the Lord's, 
and the quality of acknowledgment is altogether according to 
the quality of love in doing the precepts, which are uses. 

40. A third law of divine providence is, That to think 
and to speak ivhat is true, and to will and to do what is 
good, from freedom according to reason, is not from man but 
from the Lord: and that from freedom to think and to speak 
what is false, and to will and to do what is evil, is not from 
man but from hell; in such a manner, however, that ivhat is 
evil and false is from thence, but the freedom itself viewed in 
itself, and the faculty itself of thinking, of willing, of speak- 
ing and doing, viewed in themselves, are from the Lord. 
That all good which in itself is good, and that all truth 
which in itself is truth, are not from man, but from the 
Lord, may be comprehended by the understanding from this 
[consideration], that the light which proceeds from the Lord 
as a sun, is the divine truth of his divine wisdom, and that 
the heat, which also proceeds from the Lord as a sun, is the 
divine good of his divine love, and since man is the recipient 
of those, it follows, that all the good which is of love, and all 
the truth which is of wisdom, are not from man but from the 
Lord. But that every thing evil and every thing false are 
not from man, but that they are from hell ; this [proposition], 
inasmuch as it has not before been heard of, has not been 
made [an article] of faith, like this, that good and truth are 
not from man. But that it is an appearance [that what is 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 43 

evil and false is from man], and if it be believed, that it is a 
fallacy, cannot be comprehended, until it is known what hell 
is and how hell can flow in with what is evil and false on 
one part, as the Lord flows in with what is good and true on 
the other : it shall be stated therefore, first of whom hell 
consists, what hell is, and where ; also, how it flows in and 
acts against good, and thus, how man, who is in the midst, is 
on both parts acted upon as a recipient only. 

41. First, then, it shall be stated of whom hell consists. 
Hell consists of spirits, who, while they were men in the 
world, denied a God, acknowledged nature, lived contrary to 
divine order, loved evils and falses, although not so much 
before the world because of appearance, and who, hence, 
were either insane with regard to truths, or despised them, 
or denied them, if not with the mouth, still in heart: of 
those, who have been such from the creation of the world, 
hell consists. All these are there called either devils or 
satans; devils, with whom the love of self was predominant, 
satans, with whom the love of the world was predominant. 
The hell where devils are, in the Word is understood by the 
Devil, and the hell where satans are is there understood by 
Satan. The Lord, also, has so joined the devils together, 
that they are as one, in like manner the satans; hence it is, 
that the hells are called the Devil and Satan in the singular. 
Hell does not consist of spirits immediately created, neither 
does heaven [consist] of angels immediately created, but hell 
[consists] of men born in the world, who were made devils 
or satans by themselves, and heaven in like manner [consists] 
of men born in the world, who were there made angels by 
the Lord. All men are spirits as to the interiors which are 
of their minds, clothed in the world with a material body, 
which stands under the nod of the thought of his spirit, and 
under the arbitration of his affection; for the mind, which is 
spirit, acts, and the body, which is matter, is acted upon : 
and every spirit, after the rejection of the material body, is a 
man, in a form similar to what he had when a man in the 
world. From these considerations it is evident of whom hell 
consists. 

42. The hell where are those who are called devils, is the 
love of self; and the hell where are those who are called sa- 
tans, is the love of the world. [The reason] that the diabo- 
lical hell is the love of self, is, because that love is opposite 
to celestial love, which is love to the Lord : and [the reason] 
that the satanical hell is the love of the world, is, because this 



44 ATHANASIAN CREED* 

love is opposite to spiritual love, which is love towards the 
neighbor. Now, whereas the two loves of hell are opposite 
to the two loves of heaven, therefore hell and the heavens 
are in opposition to each other ; for all who are in the hea- 
vens have respect to the Lord and to the neighbor, but all 
who are in the hells have respect to themselves and the world ; 
all who are in the heavens love the Lord and love the neigh- 
bor, but all who are in the hells love themselves and the 
world, and hence hold the Lord and the neighbor in hatred : 
all who are in the heavens think [what is] true and will 
[what is] good, because [they think and will] from the Lord : 
but all who are in the hells think [what is] false and will 
[what is] evil, because [they think and will] from themselves. 
From this cause it is, that all who are in the hells appear 
averted, with the face backwards from the Lord, and like- 
wise inverted, with the feet upwards and the head down- 
wards ; this appearance is from their loves, in that they are 
opposite to the loves of heaven. Inasmuch as hell is self- 
love, it is, also, fire, for all love corresponds to fire, and in 
the spiritual world is presented visible as fire afar off, al- 
though it is not fire, but love ; hence, the hells inwardly ap- 
pear as on fire, and outwardly as ejections of fire in smoke, 
from furnaces or from burning substances, and sometimes, 
also, the devils themselves appear as charcoal fires : the heat 
[derived] to them from that fire is as an effervescence from im- 
pure dregs, which [effervescence] is concupiscence ; and the 
light [derived] to them from that fire is only an appearance of 
light [derived] from phantasies, and from confirmations of 
evils by falses ; nevertheless, it is not light, for whensoever 
the light of heaven flows in it becomes to them thick dark- 
ness, and when the heat of heaven flows in it becomes to 
them cold; still, however, they see from their own light, 
and live from their own heat, but they see as owls, birds of 
night, and bats, whose eyes are blind to the light of heaven : 
and they live as half dead; the living principle [appertain- 
ing] to them is only from the ability to think, to will, to 
speak, to do, and hence to see, to hear, to taste, to smell, 
and to feel ; which living principle is only a faculty springing 
from the life which is God, acting from without into them, 
according to order, and continually pressing [them] to 
order, from which faculty it is that they live to eternity; and 
the dead principle [appertaining] to them is from the evils 
and falses springing from their loves; hence it is, that their 
life, viewed from their loves, is not life, but death, wherefore 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 45 

hell, in the Word, is called death, and its inhabitants are 
called dead. 

43. It was said, that self-love and the love of the world 
constitute hell, but it shall now be stated whence those loves 
are. Man was created to love himself and the world, to love 
his neighbor and heaven, and, also, to love the Lord ; hence 
it is, that when man is born, he first loves himself and the 
world, and afterwards, in proportion as he grows wise, he 
loves his neighbor and heaven, and in proportion as he grows 
further in wisdom, he loves the Lord : when he becomes such, 
he is then in divine order, and is led of the Lord actually, 
and of himself apparently : but in proportion as he is not 
wise, in the same proportion he stops in the first degree, which 
is to love himself and the world, and if he loves his neighbor, 
heaven, and the Lord, it is for the sake of himself before the 
world : but if he is altogether not wise, he then loves himself 
alone, and the world for the sake of himself, in like manner 
his neighbor, and with respect to heaven and the Lord, he 
either makes light of them, or denies them, or hates them, if 
not with the mouth, still in heart. These are the origins of 
the love of self and of the love of the world, and inasmuch 
as these loves are hell, it is evident whence hell is. When 
man becomes a hell, he is then as a tree cut off, or as a tree 
whose fruits are malignant ; and he is as sandy earth, in 
which no seed strikes root, or as earth out of which springs 
only the briar that pricks, and the nettle that burns. When 
man becomes a hell, then the interior or superior [degrees] of 
his mind are closed, and the exterior and inferior opened : 
and whereas the love of self determines all things of the 
thought and will to self, and immerses them in the body, it 
hence inverts and twists back the exteriors of the mind, 
which, as was said, are open ; and the consequence is, that 
they verge, tend, and are carried backwards, that is, to 
hell. But inasmuch as man has still the faculty of thinking, 
of willing, of speaking and of doing, which faculty is never 
taken from him, supposing him to be born a man, therefore 
because he is inverted, and no longer receives any thing good 
or any thing true from heaven, but only what is evil and false 
from hell, that he may be still distinguished above others, he 
procures to himself a lumen by confirmations of what is evil 
from what is false, and of what is false from what is evil ; 
this he believes to be rational lumen, when yet it is infernal 
lumen, in itself infatuated, from which he has vision as of a 
dream in the night, or he has a delirious phantasy, from 



46 ATHANASIAN CR££B* 

which, those things which are, appear as if they were riot, 
and those things which are not, as if they were. But these 
things will be seen more evidently from a comparison be- 
tween a man-angel and a man-devil. 

44. There are in the world men-angels and there are men- 
devils ; heaven is from men-angels, and hell is from men- 
devils. With a man-angel all the degrees of his life are 
open even to the Lord ; but with a man-devil only the ulti- 
mate degree is open, and the superior degrees are closed. 
A man-angel is led of the Lord from within as well as from 
without ; but a man-devil is led of himself from within, and 
of the Lord from without. A man-angel is led of the Lord 
according to order, from within from order, from without to 
order ; but a man-devil is led of the Lord to order from with- 
out, but of himself against order from within. A man-angel 
is continually withdrawn from evil by the Lord, and led to 
good ; but a man-devil is continually, also, withdrawn by the 
Lord from evil, but from a more grievous to a less one, for he 
cannot be led to good. A man-angel is continually with- 
drawn from hell by the Lord, and is led into a heaven more 
and more interiorly ; but a man-devil is continually, also, 
withdrawn from hell, but from a more grievous to a milder, 
for he cannot be led into heaven. A man-angel, because he 
is led of the Lord, is led by civil law, by moral law, and by 
spiritual law, on account of the Divine [which is] in them ; a 
man-devil is led by the same laws, but on account of what is 
of himself in them. A man-angel from the Lord loves the 
goods of the church, which, also, are the goods of heaven, 
because they are goods, in like manner, its truths, because 
they are truths; but of himself he loves the goods of the 
body and of the world, because they are for use, and because 
they are for pleasure, in like manner, the truths which are of 
the sciences, yet he loves both the latter and the former 
apparently of himself, but actually from the Lord : but a 
man-devil, from himself, also loves the goods of the body and 
of the world, because they are for use, and because they are 
for pleasure, in like manner, the truths which are of the 
sciences ; but he loves both the latter and the former ap- 
parently from himself, but actually from hell. A man-angel 
is in freedom and in the delight of his heart, when he does 
good from good, and likewise, when he is not doing evil ; 
but a man-devil is in freedom and in the delight of his heart, 
when he does good from evil, and likewise whilst he is doing 
evil. A man-angel and a man-devil appear like to each 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 47 

other as to externals, but they are altogether unlike as to 
internals ; wherefore, when external things are laid aside by 
death, they are manifestly unlike ; the one is taken away into 
heaven, and the other is conveyed down to hell. 

45. That man is only a recipient of what is good and true 
from the Lord, and of what is evil and false from hell, should 
be illustrated by comparison, confirmed by the laws of order 
and influx, and, lastly, established by experience. It is 
illustrated by the following comparisons : the sensories of the 
body are only recipient and percipient as from themselves; 
the sensory of sight, which is the eye, sees objects out of 
itself, as if it were at them, when yet, the rays of light con- 
vey, with the wings of ether, their forms and colors to the 
eye, which forms, being perceived in the eye, are examined 
by the internal sight, which is called the understanding, and 
according to their quality are distinguished and known. 
The sensory of hearing, in like manner, perceives sounds, 
whether they be voices or modulations, from the place 
whence they flow, as if it were there, when yet, the sounds 
flow in from without, and are perceived by the understanding 
within in the ear. The sensory of smell, also, perceives 
from within what flows in from without, sometimes from a 
great distance. The sensory of taste, also, is excited by the 
eatables which are conveyed to the tongue from without. 
The sensory of touch has no sensation unless it be touched. 
These five sensories of the body, by virtue of an influx from 
within, are sensible of those things which flow in from with- 
out ; the influx from within is from the spiritual world, and 
the influx from without is from the natural world. With 
these facts, the laws inscribed on the nature of all things are in 
concert, which laws are, 1. That nothing exists, subsists, is 
acted upon and moved, of itself, but from another : whence 
it follows, that every thing exists, subsists, is acted upon and 
moved, from the First (Being), who is not from another, but 
in himself is a living force, which is life. 2. That nothing 
can be acted upon and moved, unless it be in the midst be- 
tween two forces, one of which acts and the other re-acts, 
thus, unless one acts on one part, and one on the other; 
also, unless one acts from within, and the other from with- 
out. 3. And whereas these two forces, whilst they are at 
rest, make an equilibrium, it follows, that nothing can be 
acted upon or moved, unless it be in equilibrium, and when 
it is acted upon, that it is out of that [equilibrium] ; also, 
that every thing acted upon or moved seeks to return to an 



48 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

equilibrium. 4. That all activities are changes of state and 
variations of form, and that the latter are from the former : 
by state, in man, we understand his love, and by changes of 
state the affections of love : by form, in man, we understand 
his intelligence, and by variations of form [his] thoughts ; 
the latter, also, are from the former. 

46. But on this subject we are also to speak from ex- 
perience : the angels of the superior heavens feel and per- 
ceive manifestly, that they have goods and truths from the 
Lord, and that they have nothing at all of good and truth 
from themselves : when they are admitted into the state of 
their proprium, as is the case at stated periods [per vices], 
they, also, feel and perceive manifestly, that the evil and the 
false, which appertain to their proprium, are [derived] to 
them from hell. Some angels of the lowest heaven, not com- 
prehending that what is evil and false is from hell, because 
in the world they had acknowledged that they themselves 
were in evils from nativity and from actual life, were led into 
infernal societies from one to another, in each of which, 
whilst they were in it, they thought altogether as the devils 
there thought, and with a difference in one society and in 
another, thinking on the occasion against goods and truths; 
they were told to think from themselves, thus otherwise, but 
they replied, that they could not ; whence they comprehended 
that evils and falses flowed in from hell. The case is 
similar with many, who believe and insist that life is in them 
[as their own]. It sometimes, also, comes to pass, that the 
societies with which they are connected are separated from 
them, and when this is the case, they cannot think, nor will, 
nor speak, nor act, they lie down like little new-born infants ; 
but as soon as they are remitted into their societies, they 
revive : for every one, both man, and spirit, and angel, as to 
his affections and consequent thoughts, is connected with 
societies, and acts as one with them ; hence it is, that all are 
known, as to their quality, from the societies in which they 
are. From these considerations it is evident, that the quality 
of life flows in to them from without. As to what concerns 
myself, 1 can testify, that for fifteen years I have manifestly 
perceived, that I did not think and will any thing from 
myself, also, that all evil and false flowed in from infernal 
societies, and that all good and truth flowed in from the 
Lord : wherefore, some spirits observing this, said, that I did 
not live ; to whom it was given to reply, that I lived more 
than they did, because I was sensible of the influx of good 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 49 

and truth from the Lord, and saw and perceived illustration ; 
and that, from the Lord, I perceived evils and falses from 
hell, not only that the evils are thence, but, also, from whom ; 
and it has likewise been given me to speak with them, to 
rebuke them, and to reject them with their evils and falses, 
from which I was thus liberated : and it has further been 
given me to say, that now I know that I live, and before not 
so. From these considerations I have been fully convinced, 
that all evil and false is from hell, and all good and truth, 
together with the perception of them, is from the Lord ; and 
moreover, that I had freedom and thence perception as from 
myself. That all evil and false is from hell, it has also been 
given me to see with my own eyes ; there appear over the 
hells, as it were, fires and smokes, evils are fires, and falses 
are smokes ; they continually exhale and rise up from thence, 
and the spirits, who abide in the midst between heaven and 
hell, are affected by them according to their love. It shall, 
also, be briefly shown, how evil and the false can flow forth 
from hell, when there is given only one acting force, which 
is the life which is God ; this, likewise, has been revealed : 
a truth from the Word was uttered with a loud voice from 
heaven, which flowed down to hell, and from one and another 
to the lowest hell ; and it was heard, that this truth, in its 
flowing down, was successively and by degrees turned into 
the false, and at length, into such a false as was altogether 
opposite to the truth, and then it was in the lowest hell. The 
reason why it was so turned, was, because every thing is re- 
ceived according to state and form ; hence, truth, flowing in 
into inverted forms, such as are in hell, was successively 
inverted and changed into the false opposite to truth. From 
this circumstance, it was also evident, what is the quality of 
hell, from the highest to the lowest ; likewise, that there is 
but one acting force, which is the life which is the Lord. 

47. That man is nevertheless a subject of guilt [r^ws] 
follows from what has been said above, and likewise from 
what has been before confirmed concerning the life which 
is God, and which appertains to man from God, and, also, 
from the laws above enumerated, which are truths. The 
reason why evil is imputed to man, is, because it has been 
| given to him, and is continually given, to feel and to perceive 
as if life was in him, and inasmuch as he is in that state, he 
is, also, in the freedom and faculty of acting as from himself; 
this faculty, viewed in itself, and this freedom, viewed in 
itself, is never taken away from him, because he is born a 
5 



50 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

man, who is to live forever; it is from that faculty and that 
freedom, that he can receive both good and evil as of him- 
self. And whereas man is kept in the midst between heaven 
and hell, the Lord also gives him to know that good is from 
Him, and that evil is from the devil ; also by truths in the 
church, to know what good is and what evil is : when man 
knows those truths, and it is given him from the Lord to 
think them, to will them, to speak and to do them, as from 
himself, and this continually by influx, then, if he does not 
receive, he becomes guilty. But the fallacy which man 
denies thence, is principally, that he does not know that his 
freedom, and faculty of acting as from himself, is from an 
influx of life from the Lord into his inmost principles, and 
that this influx is never taken away from him, because he is 
born a man, who has that inmost principle ; but that the 
influx of life from the Lord into the recipient forms, which 
are beneath that inmost principle, in which forms and where 
the understanding and will reside, is varied according to the 
reception of good and truth, yea, that that influx is diminish- 
ed, and is, also, taken away, according to the reception of 
what is evil and false : in a word, the life which makes man 
to be man, and to be distinguished from the brute animals, 
and which is in his inmost principle, and is, therefore, 
universally active in inferior principles, from which he has 
freedom, and the faculty of thinking, of willing, of speaking 
and of doing, is perpetually from the Lord appertaining to 
him ; but the understanding and will of man, thence, or 
from that life, is changed and varied according to reception. 
Man lives in the midst between heaven and hell, and the 
delight of the love of evil and of the false thence continually 
flows into him from hell, and the delight of the love of good 
and of the truth thence, flows into him from the Lord, and 
he is kept constantly in the sense and perception of life, as 
from himself, and by it is kept, also, constantly in the freedom 
of choosing the one or the other, and in the faculty of re- 
ceiving the one or the other : in proportion, therefore, as he 
chooses and receives what is evil and false, in the same pro- 
portion, from that midst, he is carried down to hell ; and in pro- 
portion as he chooses what is good and true, in the same propor- 
tion, from that midst, he is taken up to heaven. The state of 
man from creation is, that he may know that evil is from hell, 
and that good is from the Lord, and that he may perceive those 
principles in himself as from himself, and whilst he perceives, 
that he may reject the evil to hell, and receive good, with the 
acknowledgment, that it is from the Lord ; when he does the 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 51 

latter and the former, he then does not appropriate evil unto 
himself, and does not make good meritorious. But I know 
that there are many who do not comprehend this, and who 
are not willing to comprehend it, but nevertheless let them 
pray thus : — " That the Lord may be with them continually , 
and maij lift and up-turn his faces to them, and may teach, 
illustrate and lead them, since of themselves they cannot do any 
thing that is good, and may grant to them that they may live ; 
let not the devil seduce them, and instil evils into their hearts, 
knoiving that ivhilst they are not led of the Lord, he [the 
devil] leads them, and breathes into them evils of every kind, 
as hatred, revenge, cunning, deceit, in like manner as a serpent 
infuses poison ; for he is present, excites, and continually 
accuses, and wheresoever he meets with a heart turned away 
from God, he enters in, dwells there, and draws the soul down 
to hell : O Lord deliver us." These words coincide with 
what was said above, for hell is the devil, and hereby it is still 
acknowledged that man is either led of the Lord, or is led of 
hell, thus that he is in the midst. See also what was said 
above upon this subjedt n. 35. 

48. A fourth law of the Divine Providence is, That the un- 
derstanding and ivill should not be in the least compelled, since 
all compulsion takes away freedom : but that man should com- 
pel himself , for to compel himself is to act from freedom. The 
freedom of man is of his will, and from the will it is in the 
thought of the understanding, and by this thought it is in the 
speech of the mouth and in the action of the body : for man 
says, whilst he wills any thing from freedom, I will to think 
this, I will to speak this, and I will to act this. Moreover, 
from the freedom of the will man has the faculty of thinking, 
of speaking, and of acting, for the will gives this faculty, 
because it is free. Inasmuch as freedom is of the will of man, 
it is likewise of his love, since nothing else appertaining to 
man constitutes freedom, but the love which is of his will ; 
the reason is, because love is the life of man; for man is of 
such a quality as hislove is, consequently, what proceeds from 
the love of his will, this proceeds from his life. Hence it is 
evident, that freedom is of the will of man, is of his love, and 
is of his life, consequently, that it makes one with his pro- 
prium, and with his nature and temper. Now, whereas the 
Lord wills that every thing, which comes from Himself to 
man, should be appropriated to man as his, since otherwise 
there would not be in man a reciprocal principle by which 
conjunction may be effected, therefore it is a law of the Divine 
Providence, that the understanding and will of man should 



52 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

not be at all compelled by another ; for who cannot think and 
will both evil and good, against the laws and with the laws, 
against the king and with the king, yea, against God and with 
God ? Nevertheless, it is not allowed him to speak and do all 
things which he thinks and wills, being restrained by fears, 
which compel the externals, but not the internals; the reason 
is, because the externals are to be reformed by the internals, 
and not the internals by the externals, for what is internal 
flows in into what is external, and not vice versa: the inter- 
nals, also, appertain to man's spirit, and the externals to his 
body, and because the spirit of man is to be reformed, there- 
fore it is not compelled. There are, notwithstanding, fears 
which compel the internals, or the spirit of man, but they are 
no other fears but what flow in from the spiritual world which, 
on one part, relate to the punishments of hell, and, on the 
other, to not obtaining favor with God ; but fear on account 
of the punishment of hell is external with respect to the 
thought and will, whereas fear on account of not obtaining 
favor with God is internal with regard to those principles, and 
is a holy fear which adds and conjoins itself to love, with 
which at length it makes one essence, since he who loves any 
one, is fearful from a principle of love to injure him. 

49. There is an infernal freedom, and there is a celestial 
freedom; the infernal freedom is that into which man is 
born from his parents, and the celestial freedom is that into 
which man is reformed by the Lord. From infernal freedom 
man has the will of evil, the love of evil, and the life of evil ; 
but from celestial freedom he has the will of good, the love 
of good, and the life of good; for as was before said, the 
will, the love and the life of man make one with his freedom. 
Those freedoms are opposite to each other, but the opposite 
does not appear, only so far as man is in one and not in the 
other. Nevertheless, man cannot come out of infernal free- 
dom into celestial freedom, unless he compels himself: to 
compel himself, is to resist evil, and to fight against it as 
from himself, but still to implore the Lord for aid ; thus man 
fio-hts from the freedom which is from the Lord interiorly in 
himself, against the freedom which is from hell exteriorly in 
himself. It appears to him, whilst he is in the combat, that 
it is not freedom from which he rights, but a somewhat forced, 
because it is against that freedom which is connate with him ; 
nevertheless, it is freedom, since otherwise he would not fight 
as of himself. But the interior freedom, from which he fights, 
appearing as forced, is afterwards felt as freedom, for it be- 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 53 

comes as involuntary, spontaneous, and as it were innate; 
comparatively, as in the case of a person who compels his 
hand to write, to work, to play upon a musical instrument, 
or to fence, the hands and arms afterwards perform those 
operations as of themselves and of their own accord : for 
man then is in good, because out of evil, and is led of the 
Lord. When man has compelled himself against infernal 
freedom, he then sees and perceives that infernal freedom is 
servitude, and that celestial freedom is freedom itself, because 
from the Lord. The case in itself is this, that so far as man 
compels himself by resisting evils, so far are removed from 
him the infernal societies with which he acted as one, and he 
is introduced by the Lord into heavenly societies, with which 
he may act as one. On the other hand, if man does not 
compel himself to resist evils, he remains in them : that this 
j is the case, has been made known to me by much experience 
1 in the spiritual world ; also, that evil does not recede in con- 
sequence of the compulsion effected by punishment, nor after- 
wards by the fear of punishment. 

50. It was said above, that it is a law of the Divine Provi- 
dence, that man himself should compel himself, and by this 
is understood that he should compel himself from evil, but it 
is not understood that he should compel himself to good; 
for it is granted to compel himself from evil, but it is not 
granted to compel himself to good which in itself is good ; 
since if man compels himself to good, and has not compelled 
himself from evil, he does not do good from the Lord, but 
from himself, for he compels himself to it either for the sake 
of himself, or for the sake of the world, or for the sake of 
recompense, or from fear; such good in itself is not good, 
because the man himself, or the world, or recompense, is in 
it as its end, but not good itself, thus neither the Lord ; and 
it is not fear, but love, which makes good to be good. As 
for example ; for man to compel himself to do good to his 
neighbor, to give to the poor, to endow churches, to do jus- 
tice, consequently, to charity and to truth, while he has 
not compelled himself to abstain from evils, and thereby 
has removed them, would be like a palliative cure, by which 
the disease or ulcer is healed externally ; and it would be 
like an adulterer compelling himself to chastity, a proud man 
to humility, and a dishonest man to sincerity, by mere exter- 
nal acts. But when man compels himself [to abstain] from 
evils, he then purifies his internal, which being purified, he 
does good from freedom, nor does he compel himself to do 
5* 



54 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

it; for so far as man compels himself [to abstain] from evil, 
so far he comes into celestial freedom, and from this freedom 
is every thing good which in itself is good, to which there- 
fore the man does not compel himself. It appears, indeed, 
as if there was a coherence between a man's compelling 
himself from evil, and compelling himself to good, but there 
is no coherence. From the testimony of experience I know 
that several have compelled themselves to do good, but not 
to abstain from evil, but when they were explored, it was 
discovered, that evils from within adhered to the good; of 
consequence, their good was compared with idols and with 
images constructed either with clay or dung : and it was 
said, that such persons believe that God is captivated with 
receiving glory and gifts, even from a heart impure. Never- 
theless, before the world a man may compel himself to goods, 
although he does not compel himself from evil, since in the 
world he is recompensed on that account ; for in the world 
regard is paid to what is external, and rarely to what is in- 
ternal ; but before God it is otherwise. 

51. A fifth law of the Divine Providence is, That man, 
from sense and 'perception in himself, should not know how 
good and truth from the Lord flows in, and how evil and the 
false flows in from hell ; nor shoidd he see how the Divine 
Providence operates in favor of good against evil ; for thus 
man would not act as of himself from freedom according to 
reason ; it is sufficient for him to know and acknowledge those 
things from the Word, and from the doctrine of the church. 
This is understood by the Lord's words in John : ' The spirit 
breatheth where it willeth, and thou nearest the sound 
thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it 
goeth : so is every one who is generated of the Spirit/ iii. 8 : 
and likewise by these words in Mark : ' The kingdom of God 
is as a man, who casteth seed upon the earth, and sleepeth, 
and riseth night and day, but the seed springs up and grows, 
while he knoweth not, for the earth spontaneously bringeth 
forth fruit, first the grass, then the ear, at length the full corn in 
the ear ; and when the fruit is produced, he putteth in the 
sickle, because the harvest is at hand,' iv. 26 to 29. That 
man does not perceive the operation of the Divine Providence 
in himself, is, because this would take away his freedom, and 
hence the faculty of thinking as from himself, and with it, 
also, every delight of life, so that man would be like an 
automaton, in which is nothing reciprocal, by which conjunc- 
tion is effected; and he would likewise be a slave, and not a 



ATHANAS1AN CREED. 55 

free-man. That the Divine Providence moves so secretly, 
that scarce any trace of it appears, although it operates in all 
the most singular things of man's thought and will which 
respect his eternal state, is principally, because the Lord con- 
tinually wills to impress his love on man, and by it his wisdom, 
and thus to create him into his image : therefore the operation 
of the Lord is into man's love, and by this into his understand- 
ing, and not vice versa: the love with its affections, which 
are manifold and innumerable, is not perceived by man ex- 
cept in a most general sense, and consequently so little as 
scarce to amount to any thing, and yet man is to be led from 
one affection of the loves into another, according to the con- 
nexion in which they are arranged in order, that he may be 
reformed and saved, which thing is incomprehensible, not 
only to man, but also to an angel : if man knew any thing of 
those arcana, he could not be withdrawn from leading him- 
self, which would be continually from heaven into hell, when 
yet he is continually led by the Lord from hell into heaven : 
for man from himself constantly acts against order, and the 
Lord constantly acts according to order : for man, in con- 
sequence of the nature derived from his parents, is in the love 
of himself, and in the love of the world, and hence the all of 
those loves, from a sense of delight, is perceived as good, and 
still those loves as ends must be removed, which is effected of 
the Lord by infinite ways, which appear like the ways of a 
labyrinth, even before the angels of the third heaven. From 
these considerations it is evident, that it would be of no help 
to man at all to know any thing of this subject from sense and 
perception, but that it would rather be hurtful to him, and 
would destroy him to eternity. It is enough that man knows 
truths, and by them what is good and evil, and acknowledges 
the Lord, and his divine oversight in singular things: in this 
case, so far as he knows truths, and by them good and evil, 
and does truths as from himself, so far the Lord, by love, 
introduces him into wisdom and the love of wisdom, and con- 
joins wisdom to love, and makes them to be one, because they 
are one in himself. Those ways, by which the Lord leads 
man, may be compared with the vessels through which the 
blood flows and circulates with man ; also, with the fibres 
and their foldings within and without the viscera of the body, 
especially in the brain, through which the animal spirit flows 
and animates. In what manner all these things flow in and 
flow through, man is ignorant, and yet he lives, provided 
that he knows and does what is conducive to life. But the 



56 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

ways by which the Lord leads man, are much more compli- 
cated and inextricable, as well those by which the Lord 
leads man through the societies of hell, and from them, as 
those by which he leads man through the societies of heaven, 
and interiorly into them. This, therefore, is what is meant 
by the spirit breathing where it willeth, and thou Jcnowest 
not whence it cometh, and whither it gocth, John iii. ; also, 
by the seed springing up and growing, the man knowing not 
how, Mark iv. Of what consequence, also, is it, that a man 
should know how the seed grows, provided he knows how to 
plough the earth, to dung it, to sow the seed, and when he 
reaps his corn, to bless God ? 

52. The operation of the Divine Providence, whilst man 
is ignorant of it, shall be illustrated by two comparisons : it 
is like a gardener collecting the seeds of shrubs, fruit-trees 
and flowers of every kind, and procuring for himself spades, 
rakes, and several other hand instruments for preparing the 
ground, and afterwards dunging his garden, digging it, cut- 
ting it into beds, sowing his seeds, and raking the ground ; 
these are of the man as from himself: but it is the Lord who 
causes the seeds to take root, to spring forth out of the earth, 
to bring forth leaves, and then flowers, and lastly new seeds, 
which are given to the gardener. It is, likewise, as a man 
about to build a house, who procures for himself the requisite 
materials, as timber, rafters, stone, mortar, and several other 
things : but the Lord afterwards, whilst man is ignorant of it, 
builds the house from bottom to top, entirely accommodated 
to the man. From which consideration it follows, that un- 
less man procure for himself the things requisite for a garden 
or for a house, he will neither have a garden nor the advan- 
tage of its fruits, nor a house and thence a habitation. So 
in the case of reformation ; the things which man is to pro- 
cure for himself, are the knowledges of truth and good from 
the Word, from the doctrine of the church, from the world, 
from his own labor, the Lord operates the rest, whilst man is 
ignorant of it. But it. is to be noted that all the above re- 
quisites to sow a garden or to build a house, which, as was 
said, are the knowledges of truth and good, are merely pro- 
visional things, which are not alive, until man does them, or 
lives according to them as from himself; when this is done, 
then the Lord enters, and vivifies and builds, that is, reforms. 
The above garden, or the above house, is the understanding 
of man, for his wisdom is there, which derives from love all 
that it has. 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 57 

53. A sixth law of the Divine Providence is, That man 
cannot be reformed by external means, but by internal means ; 
by external means is meant by miracles and visions, also by 

fears and punishments : by internal means is meant by truths 
and goods from the Word, and from the doctrine of the church, 
and by looking to the Lord ; for these means enter by an in- 
ternal way, and cast out the evils and falses which reside 
within ; but external means enter by an external way, and do 
not cast out evils and falses, but shut them in. Nevertheless, man 
is further reformed by external means, provided he has been 
before reformed by internal means. This follows from the 
laws above mentioned, viz. these, that man is reformed by 

•freedom, and not without freedom, also, that to compel him- 
self is from freedom, but not to be compelled : and man is 
compelled by miracles and by visions, and likewise by fears 
and punishments ; but by miracles and visions the external 
of his spirit is compelled, which consists in thinking and 
willing, and by fears and punishments the external of his 
body is compelled, which consists in speaking and doing : 
this latter may be compelled, because man, notwithstanding, 
thinks and wills freely, but the external of his spirit, which 
consists in thinking and willing, must not be compelled, for 
thus his internal freedom perishes, by which he was to be 
reformed. If man could be reformed by miracles and visions, 
all would be reformed in the universal globe; wherefore, it 
is a holy law of the Divine Providence, that internal freedom 
should not at all be violated ; for by that freedom the Lord 
enters into man, even into the hell where he is, and by that 
freedom leads him there, and brings him forth thence, if he 
be willing to follow, and introduces him into heaven, and 
nearer and nearer to himself in heaven : thus, and no other- 
wise, man is brought out from infernal freedom, which, 
viewed in itself, is servitude, because from hell, and is intro- 
duced into celestial freedom, which is freedom itself, and 
which becomes by degrees more free, and at length most 
free, because from the Lord, who wills that man should not 
be at all compelled: this is the way of man's reformation, 
but this way is closed by miracles and visions. Neither is 
the freedom of the spirit of man at any time violated on this 
account also, that his evil, as well hereditary as actual, may 
be removed, which is accomplished whilst man compels him- 
self, as was said above ; those evils are removed by the Lord, 
through the affection of truth inspired into man, by which he 
has intelligence, and through the affection of good, by which 



58 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

he has love ; for so far as man is in these affections, so far 
he compels himself to resist evils and falses : this way of re- 
formation is also closed by miracles and visions, for they 
persuade and compel belief and thus send the thoughts as it 
were bound into a prison ; hence, if freedom be taken away, 
there is no opportunity given from an interior principle of 
removing evils, for nothing of evil is removed except from an 
interior principle : thus evils remain shut in, which, from 
their infernal freedom which they love, continually act 
against those truths and those goods which miracles and 
visions have impressed, and at length dissipate them, calling 
miracles the interior operations of nature, and visions the 
deliriums of phantasy, and truths and goods fallacies and* 
mockeries : for evils shut in produce this effect in the ex- 
ternals which shut them in. Nevertheless, man, whilst he 
thinks only superficially, may believe that miracles and visions, 
although they persuade, do not take away the liberty of 
thinking ; yet with the non-reformed they do take away 
liberty, but with the reformed they do not take it away, for 
with the latter they do not shut evils in, but with the for- 
mer. 

54. All they who wish for miracles and visions, are like 
the sons of Israel, who, when they had seen so many pro- 
digies in Egypt, at the red sea, and on mount Sinai, still after 
a month receded from the worship of Jehovah, and worship- 
ed a golden calf, Exodus xxxii. They are also like the rich 
man in hell, who said to Abraham, that if any one from the 
dead should go to his brethren, they would repent ; to whom 
Abraham replied, they have Moses and the prophets, let them 
hear them ; if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither 
will they be persuaded if one rose from the dead, Luke xvi. 29, 
30, 31. And they are like Thomas, who said that he would 
not believe unless he should see ; to whom the Lord said, 
Blessed are they who believe and do not see, John xx. 29 : 
they who believe and do not see, are they who do not desire 
signs, but truths from the Word, thus Moses and the pro- 
phets, and believe them ; these latter are internal men and 
become spiritual, but the former are external and remain 
sensual : the former, while they see miracles, and believe 
only by them, in their belief are not unlike a handsome 
woman, who is inwardly infected with a deadly disease, of 
which she soon dies; and they are, also, like apples which 
are beautiful as to the rind, but are corrupt as to the flesh; 
or they are like nuts, in which a worm lies concealed. 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 59 

Moreover, it is known that no one can be compelled to love 
and to believe, but that love and faith must be rooted inward- 
ly in man, consequently, no one can be led to love God and 
to believe in him by miracles and visions, because they com- 
pel : for how can he, who does not believe from the miracles 
[related] in the Word, believe from miracles not in the 
Word ? 

55. A seventh law of divine providence is, That man shall 
not be let into truths of faith and into goods of love by the 
Lord, but so far as he can be kept in them even to the end of 
life; for it is better that man should be constantly evil, than 
that he should be good and afterwards evil, since thus he be- 
comes profane: the permission of evil, also, is thence. The 
Lord can give the affection of truth and faith thence, and the 
affection of good and love thence, to every man who is of 
sound reason, by withholding him from evil loves, which are 
of his proprium ; for so far as man is withheld from those 
loves, so far he is in the understanding of truth and in the 
will of good: I have seen devils themselves reduced to such 
a state, in which when they were, they spoke truths from 
understanding and faith, and did what is good from will and 
love, into which state they were reduced, because they denied 
their ability to understand truths and do good ; but as soon as 
the detention from their own proper loves was relaxed, and 
they returned into the lusts of their own loves, instead of the 
faith of truth there was found in them the faith of what is false, 
and instead of the love of good there was in them the love 
of evil : this has been witnessed frequently and before several : 
hence it was made evident, that every one can be reformed, 
and that to be reformed is nothing else than to be removed 
from evil loves : but how man is removed from those loves, 
has been said above. The reason why this removal is not 
effected by the Lord, is, because they, who come into the 
affection of truth and faith thence, and into the affection of 
good and love thence, and do not abide constantly in those 
affections to the end of life, but relapse into the loves from 
which they have withheld themselves, profane holy things. 
There are several kinds of profanation, but this kind is the 
most grievous of all, for the lot of such profaners after death 
is terrible; they are not in hell but beneath hell, and there 
they do not think nor will, but see and act; they seethe 
things which are not, and do not see the things which are, 
and they act as if they acted every thing, and yet they act 
nothing, being altogether deliriums of fantasy; and because 



60 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

they do not think nor will, they are no longer men, for to 
think and to will is human ; hence they are not called they, 
in the masculine or feminine gender, but they are called, in 
the neuter gender, those things, or that : when they are 
viewed in any light of heaven they appear as skeletons, 
covered over with a black skin : such they become who have 
been once reformed and do not remain so. The reason of 
this their so horrible lot shall also be told : by reformation 
there is effected communication between them and heaven : 
hence flow in goods and truths, by which the interiors of 
their minds are opened, and evils are removed to the side : if 
they remain in this state till death, they are happy, but if they 
do not remain they become unhappy, for then the evils which 
were removed flow back, and mix themselves with truths and 
goods ; thus hell mixes itself with heaven in them, so that 
they cannot be separated ; for whatsoever is once impressed 
on the mind of man by love, this is not extirpated, wherefore 
after death, inasmuch as goods cannot be separated from 
evils, nor truths from falses, the whole mind is destroyed, 
and hence they have no longer any thought or will, but what 
remains is as a shell when the kernel is taken out, or as 
somewhat of skin and at the same time of bone without flesh, 
for this is all that remains of the man. Let it therefore be 
known, that there is no danger in coming from evil to good, 
but that there is danger in coming from good to evil. 

56. But such a lot does not await those who are constantly 
evil, for all who are constantly evil are in hell, according to 
the loves of their life ; and there they think, and from thought 
speak, although [they speak] falses ; they likewise will, and 
from will do, although [they do] evils ; and they appear among 
themselves as men, although in the light of heaven [they 
appear] in a monstrous form. From these considerations it 
may be seen, why it is by a law of order respecting reforma- 
tion, which is called a law of Divine Providence, that man 
should not be let into truths of faith and into goods of love, 
only so far as he can be withheld from evils and kept in goods 
even to the end of life; and that it is better that man be con- 
stantly evil, than that he be good and afterwards evil, for then 
he becomes profane. The Lord, who provides all things and 
foresees all things, for this cause conceals the operations of 
his providence, so that man scarce knows whether there be 
any providence, and it is permitted him rather to attribute 
events to prudence, and contingencies, to fortune, yea, to 
ascribe several things to nature, than that by extant and mani- 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 61 

fest signs of providence and of divine presence, he should 
unseasonably cast himself into sanctities in which he does 
not abide. The Lord also permits similar things by the 
other laws of his providence, namely by these, that man 
should have freedom, and that he should act what he acts 
according to reason, thus altogether as of himself; for it is 
better that man should ascribe the operations of the Divine 
Providence to prudence and fortune, than that he should ac- 
knowledge them, and still live a devil. From these considera- 
tions it is evident that the laws of permission, which are 
several, proceed from laws of providence. 

57. One sort of the above mentioned profanation is meant 
by these words in Matthew : ' When the unclean spirit goes 
out of a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, but 
finding none ; then he saith, I will return to the house from 
whence I came forth; and when he is come he findeth it 
empty, swept, and garnished ; then he goes away, and 
adjoins to himself seven other spirits worse than himself, and 
entering in they dwell there ; and the latter things of that 
man become worse than the first 1 xii. 43, 44, 45 : in this 
passage is described the conversion of a man by the de- 
parture of the unclean spirit from him ; and his return to 
evils, and consequent profanation, is described by the un- 
clean spirit returning with seven spirits worse than himself. 
In like manner, by these words in John : ( Jesus said to the 
man who was healed at the pool of Bethesda, behold thou art 
made whole, sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon thee, 1 
v. 14 : and by these words in the same evangelist : * He hath 
blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart, that they do not 
see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and con- 
vert themselves, and I heal them 1 xii. 4 : lest they should 
convert themselves and be healed, signifies, lest they should 
become profane : thus it would have been with the Jews, 
Matt. xii. 45; therefore they were forbidden to eat fat and 
blood, Levit. iii. 17 ; vii. 23, 25 ; by which was signified the 
profanation of what is holy by them in consequence of being 
of such a character. The Lord also, by his Divine Provi- 
dence, is especially careful that this kind of profanation, 
should not exist; and that it may not exist, he separates the 
holy things appertaining to man from the things not holy, 
and stores up the holy things in the interiors of his mind, 
and elevates them to himself; but the things not holy [he 
stores up] in the exteriors, and turns them to the world ; 
hence, holy things can be separated from things not holy 

6 



62 ATltANASTAN CREED. 

and man thus be saved. This cannot be effected when goods 
and evils are commixed. That they will have a crown of 
life, who remain in faith and love even to death, the Lord 
teaches in the Apocalypse, chap. ii. 10; chap. iii. 26. 

58. The eighth law of Divine Providence is, That the 
Lord continually withdraws man from evils, so far as man 
from freedom wills to be withdrawn ; that so far as he can 
be withdrawn from evils, so far he is led by the Lord to good, 
thus to heaven ; and so far as man cannot be withdrawn from 
evils, so far he cannot be led by the Lord to good, thus to 
heaven: for man, so far as he is withdrawn from evils, so far 
does good from the Lord, which good in itself is good, but so 

far as he is not toithdrawn from evils, so far he does good 
from himself, which good in itself has evil. Man, by the 
speech of his mouth, and by the actions of his body, is in 
the natural world, but by the thoughts of his understanding 
and by the affections of his will he is in the spiritual world : 
by the spiritual world is meant both heaven and hell, each 
distinguished most ordinately into innumerable societies, 
according to all the varieties of affections and of thoughts 
thence. In the midst of those [societies] is man, so tied to 
them that he cannot in the least either think or will, but 
together with them, and so together, that if the man was to 
be plucked away from them, or they from him, he would fall 
down dead, retaining only life in his inmost degree, by which 
degree he is a man and not a beast, and by which he lives to 
eternity. Man does not know that he is in such inseparable 
consort as to life, and the reason why he does not know it is, 
because he does not discourse with spirits, consequently, 
does not know any thing concerning that state. But, lest 
this should be concealed to eternity, lo ! it is revealed. This 
is necessary to be premised, before this law of Divine Provi- 
dence can be understood. 

59. Man from his birth is in the midst of infernal societies, 
and dilates himself into them, altogether as he dilates the 
evil affections of his will. The evil affections of the will are 
all from the loves of self and of the world ; the reason is, 
because those loves turn all things of the mind downwards 
and outwards, thus to hell, which is beneath, and which is out 
of themselves, and thereby averts them from the Lord, thus 
from heaven : the interiors also of all things of the human 
mind, and therewith the interiors of all things of the spirit, can 
be turned downwards and can be turned upwards; they are 
turned downwards when man loves himself above all things; 



Athanasian creed. 63 

and they are turned upwards when he loves the Lord above all 
things; it is an actual turning; man of himself turns them 
downwards, and the Lord from himself turns them upwards; 
the reigning love is what turns. Thoughts do not turn the 
interiors of the mind, except so far as they are derived from 
he will. That this is so man does not know, and yet he 
should know, in order that he may understand how he is led 
out of hell, and led into heaven by the Lord. 

60. But that man may be led out of hell, and be led into 
heaven, by the Lord, it is necessary that he should resist hell, 
that is, evils, as of himself: if he does not resist as of him- 
self, he remains in hell, and hell in him, nor are they separa- 
ted to eternity. This, likewise, follows from the above-men- 
tioned laws of Divine Providence, which have been explained. 
That this is the case, experience also will teach : evils are 
removed from man either by punishments, or by temptations 
and consequent aversions, or by the affections of truth and 
good. Evils are removed by punishments with those who 
are not reformed ; by temptations and consequent aversions 
with those about to be reformed ; and by the affections of 
truth and good with the regenerate. Experience is this; 
when one unreformed or evil undergoes punishments, as is 
the case in hell, he is kept in the punishment until it is per- 
ceived that of himself he refuses evils, nor is he sooner lib- 
erated, thus he is compelled of himself to remove evils; if 
he be not punished even to that intention and will, he re- 
mains in his evil ; nevertheless, evil is not still extirpated, 
because he has not compelled himself, therefore it remains 
within, and recurs when the fear ceases. Evils with those 
who are about to be reformed, are removed by temptations, 
which are not punishments, but combats : persons in these 
circumstances are not compelled to resist evils, but compel 
themselves, and implore the Lord, and are thus liberated from 
1 the evils which they have resisted ; these afterwards desist 
from evils, not from any fear of punishment, but from aver- 
sion to evil, which aversion in their case is at length resist- 
ance. But with the regenerate, there are not any temptations 
or combats, but there are affections of truth and good, which 
withhold evils at a distance from them : for they are altogether 
separated from hell, whence evils come, and are conjoined to 
the Lord. To be separated and removed from evils is nothing 
else than to be separated and removed from infernal societies. 
The Lord is able to separate and remove all, as many as he 
wills, from infernal societies, thus from evils, and is likewise 



64 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

able to transmit them into heavenly societies, thus into goods, 
but this endures only for a few hours, after which the evils 
recur : this, also, I have occasionally seen done, and likewise 
that the evil person continued evil as before. In the whole 
spiritual world there is not given an example of any one being 
removed from evils, except by combat or resistance as of 
himself, or of any one being removed, except by the Lord 
alone. 

61. Experience further testifies to the same purpose; all 
who come from the earth into the spiritual world, are known 
as to their quality, from this consideration, whether they can 
resist evils as of themselves, or whether they cannot : they 
who can are saved, but they who cannot are not saved : the 
reason is, because man cannot resist evils of himself, but of 
the Lord ; for it is the Lord who resists evils with man, and 
causes that man should feel and perceive as if he did it of 
himself; they, therefore, who in the world have acknow- 
ledged the Lord, and likewise that all good and truth is from 
him, and nothing from man, and thus that they have power 
against evils from the Lord, and not from themselves, resist 
evils as of themselves. But they who have not acknowledged 
those things in the world, cannot resist evils as of themselves, 
for they are in evils, and in the delight of them from love, 
and to resist the delight of love is to resist themselves, their 
own nature, and their own life. The experiment was made 
whether they were able to resist evils whilst the punishments 
of hell were announced to them, yea whilst they were seen, 
and likewise felt, but still it was in vain, for they hardened 
the mind, [animus] saying, let come what will, only let me 
be in the delights and joys of rny heart so long as I am here ; 
I know things present, what is to come I do not think about; 
no more evil will befall me than many others: but after a 
stated time they are cast into hell, where they are compelled 
by punishments not to do evil, but punishments do not take 
away the will, the intention, and consequent thought of evil, 
they only take away the act. From these considerations it 
is evident, that to resist evils is not effected by man, but by 
the Lord with those who acknowledge him, and that the 
Lord gives it to appear as if it were done by them. 

62. That the Lord alone resists evils with man, and not by 
any angels of heaven, is, because to resist evils with man is 
of Divine Omnipotence, Divine Omniscience, and Divine 
Providence. It is of Divine Omnipotence, because to resist 
one evil is to resist many, and likewise is to resist the hells; 



: 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 65 

tor every single evil is conjoined with innumerable evils, they 
cohere like the hells with each other, for as evils so the 
hells, and as the hells so evils, make one, and no one can 
resist the hells so conjoined except the Lord alone. It is of 
Divine Omniscience, because the Lord alone knows what is 
the quality of man, and what his evils are, and in what con- 
nexion they are with other evils, thus in what order they are 
to be removed, that man may be healed from within, orradi- 
cally. It is of Divine Providence, lest any thing be done 
contrary to the laws of order, also, that what is done may 
promote the happiness of man to eternity; for Divine Pro- 
vidence, Divine Omniscience, and Divine Omnipotence, in 
singular things, have respect to what is eternal. From 
these considerations it may be manifest, that no angel can 
resist evils with man, but the Lord alone. The Lord effects 
these things with man immediately from himself, and like- 
wise mediately through heaven, but still in such a manner, 
that no angel knows any thing about it : for heaven in its 
whole complex is the Lord, because it is his Divine Pro- 
ceeding, wherefore, whilst he operates through heaven, it is 
likewise from himself; but it is said mediately, because the 
divine operation is transfluent through the heavens, yet still 
it takes nothing from the proprium of any angel there, but 
from its own appertaining to them : the appearance is, as 
when man performs an action, he moves innumerable moving 
fibres scattered through the whole body to perform it, of 
which no single fibre knows any thing : such also are angels 
in the divine body, which is called heaven. 

63. The law of Divine Providence, that man, so far as he 
can be led from evils, so far does good from the Lord which 
in itself is good, but so far as he cannot be led from evils, so 
far he does good from himself, which in itself has evil, may 
be illustrated from the precepts of the decalogue; as for ex- 
ample, from the precept concerning not stealing; they who 
resist as of themselves the lust of stealing, thus also, the lust 
of obtaining gain by insincerity and injustice, saying in their 
hearts, that they ought not to do so, because it is contrary to 
a divine law, thus contrary to God, in itself infernal, thus in 
itself evil, after a few short combats are withdrawn from that 
evil, and are led by the Lord into the good which is called 
sincere and into the good which is called just, and then 
they begin to think of those goods, and to see them from 
them, sincerity from sincerity, and justice from justice, and 
afterwards, as they shun and hold in aversion the evil of the 
6* 



DO ATHANASIAN CREED. 

above-mentioned last, they love those goods, and from love 
do them without compelling themselves : those goods are 
from the Lord, because they are goods in themselves good. 
But it is otherwise if the lust of obtaining gain by insincerity 
and injustice remains with man, for in this case he cannot 
do what is sincere from sincerity, nor what is just from 
justice, thus not from the Lord, but from himself; for he 
does these things that he may acquire the credit of being 
sincere and just, for the sake of the ends which he purposes 
of securing greater gain and honor : these ends are in his 
goods, and from the end is all the quality of good : this 
good, has in itself evil, since its quality is derived from the 
proposed end of obtaining gain by insincerity and injustice. 
Every one can see, that this good cannot be made good 
in itself, until evil is removed. The case is similar in 
regard to the other precepts of the decalogue. 

64. So far as man is removed from evils, so far he is re- 
moved from hell, because evils and hell are one; and so far 
as he is removed from these, so far he enters into goods, and 
is conjoined with heaven, for goods and heaven are one. 
Man in this case becomes another man, his freedom, his 
good, his mind, and his understanding and will, being invert- 
ed, for he becomes an angel of heaven. His freedom, which 
had before been the freedom of thinking and willing evil, 
becomes the freedom of thinking and willing good, which in 
itself is freedom itself: when man is in this freedom, he then 
first knows what freedom is, but not before, since from the 
freedom of evil he felt the freedom of good as servitude, but 
now from the freedom of good he feels the freedom of evil 
as servitude, as also it is in itself. The good, which man 
had before done, inasmuch as it was from the freedom of 
evil, could not be good in itself, since the love of self or of 
the world was in it ; for good is not given from any other 
origin but from love, and hence, such as the love is, such is 
the good; if the love be evil, still its delight is felt as good, 
although it is evil ; but the good which man afterwards does, 
is good in itself, because from the Lord, who is good itself, 
as was said above. The mind of man, before it was con- 
joined to heaven, was turned backwards, because it was not 
yet brought forth out of hell ; but whilst it is in a state of 
reformation, it looks from truth to good, thus from left to 
right, which is contrary to order ; but after the mind is con- 
joined to heaven, it is turned forwards, and is elevated to the 
Lord, and looks from right to left, that is, from good to truth, 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 67 

which is according to order : thus a turning is effected. 
The case is similar with the understanding and the 2^7/, be- 
cause the understanding is recipient of truth, and the will 
recipient of good : before man is brought out of hell, the 
understanding and will do not act as one, for at that time, 
from the understanding, man sees and acknowledges several 
things which he does not will, because he does not love 
them ; but when man is conjoined to heaven, then the under- 
standing and will act as one, for the understanding becomes 
of the will, since man, when the turning is effected, loves 
what he wills, and what he wills from love this he also 
thinks ; thus, after man is removed from evils by resistance 
and combat against them as from himself, he comes into 
the love of truth and good, and in this case, all things 
which he wills and thence does, he also thinks and thence 
speaks. 

65. There are two faculties of life appertaining to man; 
one is called understanding and the other will : those 
faculties are altogether distinct from each other, but are 
created to make one, and when they make one, they are 
called one mind ; nevertheless, with man they are at first 
divided, but afterwards they are united. They are dis- 
tinguished altogether as light and heat, for understanding is 
from the light of heaven, which in its essence is divine truth 
or divine wisdom ; the understanding, also, appertaining to 
man, whilst he is in the world, sees, thinks, reasons and con- 
cludes from that light; that this is so man does not know, 
because*he does not know any thing concerning that light 
and its origin : but the will is from the heat of heaven, which 
in its essence is divine good or divine love; the will, also, 
appertaining to man, whilst he is in the world, loves from 
that heat, and has all its pleasure and delight ; that this is so 
man again does not know, because he does not know any 
thing concerning that light and its origin. Now, whereas 
the understanding sees from the light of heaven, it is evident 
that it is the subject and receptacle of that light, thus also, 
the subject and receptacle of truth and the wisdom thence 
derived : and whereas the will loves from the heat of heaven, 
it is evident that it is the subject and receptacle of that heat, 
so likewise, the subject and receptacle of good, thus of love. 
From these considerations it may be seen manifestly, thai 
those two faculties of the life of man are distinct like light 
and heat, also, like truth and good, and like wisdom and 
love. That those two faculties are at first divided with man. 



68 ATHANASIAN CREED; 

is perceived evidently from this consideration, that man cari 
understand what is true, and from what is true [can under- 
stand] what is good, and approve it, but still not will it, and 
from willing do it ; for he understands what is true, and 
hence what is good, whilst he hears and reads it, and he so 
perfectly understands, that afterwards he can teach it by 
preaching and writing; but when he is left to himself, and 
thinks from his own spirit, he can then observe that he does 
not will it, yea, that he wills to act contrary to it, and like- 
wise, that he does act contrary to it, when not restrained by 
fears. Of this character are they, who can speak intelligent- 
ly, and yet live otherwise ; this is what is meant by a man's 
seeing one law T in his spirit, and another in his flesh, for 
spirit is the understanding, and flesh is the will. This dis- 
agreement of the understanding and will is perceived princi- 
pally by those who are willing to be reformed, but little by 
others. The reason why this disagreement is given, is, 
because the understanding with man is not destroyed, but the 
will is destroyed : for understanding is comparatively as the 
light of the world, by virtue of which a man is able to see 
with equal clearness in the time of winter as in the time of 
summer ; and the will is comparatively as the heat of the 
world, which may be absent from the light, and may be pre- 
sent with the light, for it is absent in the time of winter, and 
it is present in the time of summer. But the case is this, 
that nothing destroys understanding but will, as nothing 
destroys the germinations of the earth but the absence of 
heat. Understanding derived from will is destroyed with 
those who are in evils, when they act in unity, not when they 
do not act in unity; they act in unity, when man thinks with 
himself from his own love, but they do not act in unity when 
he is with others; for in this latter case, he conceals and 
thereby removes the proper love of his own will, which being 
removed, the understanding is elevated into superior light. 
The following experience may serve for confirmation ; I have 
occasionally heard spirits discoursing with each other, and 
likewise with myself, so wisely, that an angel could scarce 
discourse more wisely, and from this circumstance I have 
been led to suppose, that in a short time they would be raised 
up into heaven ; but after a time, I have seen them with the 
evil in hell, at which I was surprised; but it was given me, 
in this case, to hear them discoursing in a strain altogether 
different, not in favor of truths as before, but against them, 
by reason that now they were in the love of their own pro- 






ATHANASIAN CREED. 69 

per will, and in like manner of their own proper understand- 
ing, whereas before they were not in that Jove. It has also 
been <nven to see how the proprium of man is distinguished 
from what is not his proprium, for this may be seen in the 
light of heaven: the proprium resides interiorly, but what is 
not the proprium exteriorly, and the latter veils the former, 
and likewise hides it, nor does it appear until that veil is 
taken away, as is done with all after death. I also observed, 
that several were amazed at what they saw and heard, but 
they were of those who judge of the state of man's soul from 
his discourse and writings, and not at the same time from the 
deeds which are of his own proper will. From these con- 
siderations it is evident, that the above two faculties of life 
appertaining to man are at first divided. Something shall 
now be said of their union : They are united with those who 
are reformed, which is effected by combat against the evils 
of the will, for when those evils are removed, the will of good 
acts as one with the understanding of truth: hence it fol- 
lows, that such as the will is, such is the understanding, or, 
what is the same thing, that such as the love is, such is the 
wisdom : the reason why the latter is of such a quality as 
the former, is, because the will's love is the esse of the life 
of man, and the understanding's wisdom is the existere of 
life thence derived ; wherefore, love, which is of the will, 
forms itself in the understanding, and the form which it there 
receives is what is called wisdom ; for since both have one 
essence, it is evident that wisdom is the form of love, or love 
in form. After the above faculties are thus united by refor- 
mation, then the will's love increases daily, and it increases 
by spiritual nourishment in the understanding, for in the 
understanding it has its affection of truth and good, which is 
as an appetite that hungers and desires. From these con- 
siderations it is evident, that the will is what ought to be 
reformed, and that as it is reformed, the understanding sees, 
that is, grows wise; for, as was said ; the will is destroyed, 
but not the understanding. Will and understanding also 
make one with those who are not reformed, or the evil, if 
not in the world, still after death; for after death it is not 
allowed man to think from understanding except according 
to his will's love, every one being at length reduced to this 
necessity : and when he is so reduced, then the evil love of 
the will has its form in the understanding, which form, inas- 
much as it is from the falses of evil, is insanity. 

66. To the above observations it may be proper to add, I. 



70 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



That the light of the understanding before reformation is as 
the light of the moon, clear according to the knowledges of 
truth and good, but after reformation is as the light of the 
sun, clear according to the application of the knowledges of 
truth and good to the uses of life. II. The reason why the 
understanding has not been destroyed is, that man may know 
truths, and from truths may see the evils of his will ; and 
when he sees them, may resist them as from himself, and 
thus be reformed. III. Nevertheless, man is not to be re- 
formed by virtue of understanding, but by this, that the un- 
derstanding acknowledges truths, and from them sees evils; 
for the operation of the Divine Providence of the Lord is 
into the love of man's will, and from this into the understand- 
ing, and not vice versa. IV. That the will's love, according 
to its quality, gives intelligence; natural love derived from 
spiritual gives intelligence in things civil and moral ; but 
spiritual love in natural gives intelligence in things spiritual ; 
but love merely natural, and the conceit thence derived, 
does not give any intelligence in things spiritual, but gives 
the faculty of confirming whatsoever it is disposed to do, and 
after confirmation infatuates the understanding, so that it sees 
what is false as true, and what is evil as good : nevertheless 
this love does not take away the faculty of understanding 
truths in their light ; it takes away when it is present, and it 
does not take away when it is absent. V. When the will is 
reformed, and the wisdom which is of the understanding 
becomes that of the love which is of the will, or when wisdom 
becomes the love of truth and good in its form, then man is 
as a garden, in the time of spring, when heat is united to 
light, and gives soul to germinations; spiritual germinations 
are the productions of wisdom from love, and in this case, in 
every production, there is a soul from that love, and its 
clothing from wisdom, thus the will is as a father, and the 
understanding as a mother. VI. Such then is the life of 
man, not only the life of his mind (animus) but also the life 
of his body, inasmuch as the life of the mind acts as one 
with the life of the body by correspondences; for the 
life of the will or love corresponds to the life of the heart, 
and the life of the understanding or wisdom corresponds to 
the life of the lungs, which are the two fountains of the life 
of the body : that this is so man does not know, nevertheless 
it is from this ground that an evil person cannot live in 
heaven, and that a good person cannot live in hell ; for both 
the one and the other becomes as it were dead, if he be not 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 71 

amongst those with whom the life of his will and hence the 
life of his understanding act as one ; amongst such, and 
amono-st none else, his heart reciprocates freely, and hence 
his lungs respire freely. 

67. The ninth law of the Divine Providence [is] That 
the Lord does not immediately teach man truths, either from 
himself or by the angels, but that he teaches mediately by the 
Word, by preachings, by readings, by discourses, and by 
communications with others, and thus by cogitations with one- 
self from these; and that man, is then enlightened according 
to the affection of truth from use ; otherwise man would not 
act as of himself. These [things] follow from the laws of 
the Divine Providence before explained, [namely] from these, 
that man is in freedom, and acts what he acts from reason ; 
[also] that from understanding he should think as from him- 
self, and hence from the will should do as from himself; 
[and] further, that he is not to be compelled by miracles or 
by visions to believe any thing, or to do any thing : these 
laws are immutable, because they are of the Divine Wisdom, 
and at the same time of the Divine Love, and yet they would 
be disturbed if man were immediately taught, either by in- 
flux or by discourses. Moreover, the Lord flows in into the 
interiors of the mind of man, and through them into his 
exteriors ; also, into the affection of his will, and through 
that into the thought of his understanding, but not vice versa. 
To flow in into the interiors of the mind of man, and through 
them into his exteriors, is to in-fix the root [radiccm agere~] 
\ and from the root to produce; the root is in the interiors, 
, and production in the exteriors; and to flow in into the affec- 
! tion of the will, and through that into the thought of the 
I understanding, is first to inspire a soul, and through that to 
! form all other things ; for the affection of the will is as a 
J soul, by which the thoughts of the understanding are formed : 
this, likewise, is influx from [what is] internal into [what is] 
j external, which is given. Man knows nothing concerning 
I that which flows in into the interiors of his mind, nor con- 
, cerning that which flows in into the affection of his will ; 
[N. B. The two next lines of the original Latin being un- 
■ intelligible, by reason, it is supposed, of some error of the 
I press, they are omitted in the translation : The lines are 
' these, " sed de eo sciturus est, quod in exteriora mentis ejus, 
j et quod in cogitationem intellectus ejus influeret, et hoc foret 
i producere aliquid absque radice, et formare aliquid absque 
anima." Then it follows] Every one may see that this 



72 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

would be contrary to divine order, consequently, that it 
would be to destroy and not to build. From these [considera- 
tions] the truth of this law of the Divine Provivence appears. 
68. But how the Lord flows in, and man is thus led, can- 
not be known from any other source than from the spiritual 
world ; there man is as to his spirit, thus as to his affections 
and his thoughts thence, for the latter and the former are the 
spirit of a man ; it is this which thinks from his affection, 
and not the body. The affections of man, from which his 
thoughts are, have extension into societies in the spiritual 
world in every direction, into a greater or lesser number, 
according to the quantity and quality of affection ; within 
those societies man is as to his spirit, to them he is tied as 
with stretched-out cords which circumscribe the space for 
his walking, then as [he proceeds] from one affection into 
another, so he proceeds from one society into another, and 
in whatsoever society he is, and wheresoever he is in the 
society, there is the centre from which the affection and its 
thought runs forth to the other societies as to circumferences, 
which thus are in continual connexion with the affection of 
the centre, from which [affection] he then thinks and speaks. 
Man procures to himself in the world this sphere, which is 
the sphere of his affections and thoughts thence, if he be an 
evil man, in hell, if he be a good man, in heaven. That 
this is so, man is ignorant, because he is ignorant that such 
things are. Through those societies man, that is, his mind, 
walks free, although bound, and the Lord leads him, nor 
does he take a step, into which and from which [the Lord] 
does not lead, and gives to the man continually to know no 
otherwise, than that he goes of himself in full liberty ; and 
it is allowed him to persuade himself of this, because it is 
from the law of Divine Providence that man should be con- 
veyed whither his affection wills. If the affection be evil, 
he is carried about through infernal societies, and if he does 
not look to the Lord, he is brought into those [societies] 
more entirely and deeply, yet still the Lord leads him as by 
the hand by permitting, and withdrawing so far as [the man] 
is willing to follow from freedom : but if he looks to the 
Lord, he is brought forth from those societies successively, 
according to the order and connexion in which they are ; 
which order and which connexion is known to no one but to 
the Lord alone ; and thus he is conveyed by continual steps 
out of hell upwards towards heaven, and into heaven. This 
is effected by the Lord whilst man is ignorant of it, since if 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 73 

man knew it, he would disturb the continuation of that pro- 
gress by leading himself: it is sufficient that he learn truths 
from the Word, and by truths what things are good, and from 
truths and goods what evils and falses are, to the end that he 
may be affected by truths and goods, and not be affected by 
falses and evils : he may indeed know evils and falses, be- 
fore he knows goods and truths, but he cannot see then) and 
perceive them : thus and no otherwise man may be led from 
affection into affection, in freedom and as of himself, from 
the affection of truth and good, by leading, if he acknow- 
ledges the Divine Providence of the Lord in everything, and 
from the affection of what is evil and false, by permission, if 
he does not acknowledge that [Providence] : [it is sufficient] 
also that he is capable of receiving intelligence correspond- 
ing to affection, which he receives, so far as from truths he 
fights against evils as of himself. This is to be revealed, for 
trie reason, that it is not known that the Divine Providence 
is continual, and in the most singular things of the life of 
man, arid this because it is not known how it is. 

69. These things being premised, it shall now be told what 
affection is, and afterwards why man is led of the Lord by- 
affections and not- by thoughts, and lastly that man cannot 
otherwise be saved. What affection is. — By affection is 
meant the like as by love; but love is as the fountain, and 
affections are as streams thence, thus also, they are its con- 
tinuations. Love as a fountain is in the will of man ; affec- 
tions, which are its streams, by continuity flow in into the 
understanding, and there by means of light from truths pro- 
duce thoughts, altogether as the influences of heat in a gar- 
den produce germinations by means of rays of light; love, 
also, in its origin is the heat of heaven, truths in their origin 
are the rays of the light of heaven, and thoughts are the 
germinations from their marriage. From such a marriage 
are all the societies of heaven, which are innumerable, which 
in their essences are affections ; for they are from the heat 
which is love, and from wisdom which is light, from the 
Lord as a sun: hence, those societies, in proportion as heat 
there is united to light, and light is united to heat, are affec- 
tions of good and of truth : thence are the thoughts of all 
in those societies. From this [consideration] it is evident, 
that the societies of heaven are not thoughts, but that they 
are affections, consequently, that to be led by those societies 
is to be led by affections, or to be led by affections is to be 
led by societies ; wherefore in what now follows, for socie- 
7 



?4 ATHANASIAN CREfiD. 

ties say affections. Tt shall now be shewn, why man is led 
of the Lord by affections and not by thoughts : whilst man is 
led of the Lord by affections, he may be led according to 
all the laws of his Divine Providence, but not if by thoughts : 
affections do not manifest themselves before the man, but 
thoughts do manifest [themselves]; also, affections produce 
thoughts, but thoughts do not produce affections; it appears 
as if they produce them, but it is a fallacy; and when affec- 
tions produce thoughts, they also produce all things of man, 
because they are his life. This, likewise, is known in the 
world; if you hold man in his affection, you hold him bound, 
and lead him whither you will, and then, one reason goes as 
far as a thousand [valet pro mi lie] ; but if you do not hold 
man in his affection, reasons are of no avail, for the affec- 
tion, not in concord, either prevents them, or rejects them, 
or extinguishes them. Similar would be the case, if the 
Lord led man by thoughts immediately, and not by affections. 
Also, when man is led of the Lord by affections, it appears 
to him that he thinks freely as of himself, and that as of 
himself he speaks freely, and likewise acts. Hence now it 
is, that the Lord does not immediately teach man, but 
mediately by the Word, by doctrines and preachings from 
the Word, by discourses and conversations, for from these 
things man thinks freely as of himself. That man cannot 
Otherwise be saved, follows both from what has been said con- 
cerning the laws of the Divine Providence, and also from 
this [consideration,] that thoughts do not produce affections 
with man ; for if man knew all things of the Word, and all 
things of doctrine, even to the arcana of wisdom which per- 
tain°to the angels, and thought, and spake them, whilst yet 
his affections were concupiscences of evil, still he could not 
be brought out of hell by the Lord. Hence it is evident, 
that if man were taught from heaven by influx into his 
thoughts, it would be like casting seed into the way, or into 
water, or into snow, or into fire. 

70. Since the Divine Providence acts into the affections 
which are of man's love and thence of his will, and leads 
him in his own affection, and from that [affection] into an- 
other that is near and related to it, by freedom, and thus, 
imperceptibly, so that man knows nothing at all of the man- 
ner in which it acts, yea, that he scarce knows that there is 
a Divine Providence ; hence it is, that many deny that [Provi- 
dence] and confirm themselves against it; which is done 
[in consequence] of the various things which happen and 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 75 

exist, as that the arts and tricks of the wicked are successful, 
that impiety prevails, that there is a hell, that there is blind- 
ness of understanding in things spiritual, and that hence 
come so many heresies, and that each, commencing from one 
head, diffuses itself into congregations and nations, and re- 
mains, as Popery, Lutheranism, Calvinism, Melancthonism, 
Moravianism, Arianism, Socinianism, Quakerism, enthusi- 
asm, yea Judaism, and likewise in these naturalism and 
atheism ; and out of Europe, [extending] through several 
kingdoms, Mahometanism, and likewise Gentilism, in which 
are various kinds of worship, and in some cases none. All 
who think on these subjects not from divine truth, say in 
their heart that there is no Divine Providence, and they who 
hesitate in opinion [qui hcercnt] affirm that there is [a Divine 
Providence,] but that it is only universal : both the latter 
and the former, when they hear that the Divine Providence 
is in most singular things of the life of men, then either do 
not attend, or do attend; they who do not attend, reject the 
idea behind them, and depart ; but they who do attend, are 
as those who depart, and yet they turn back the face, and 
only look whether it be any thing, and when they see, they 
say with themselves, so it is said ; some also, of these latter, 
affirm with the mouth, and not with the heart. Now, where- 
as it is of importance that the blindness [arising] from 
ignorance, or the thick darkness arising from the absence of 
light, should be dispersed, it shall be given to see 1. that the 
Lord teaches no one immediately, but mediately by those 
things which pertain to man from hearing and sight: II. 
and yet that the Lord provides that man may be reformed 
and saved by those things, which he thence adopts into his 
religion : III. and that he provides for every nation a univer- 
sal medium of salvation. 

71. That the Lord teaches no one immediately, but mediate- 
ly by those things which pertain to man from hearing and 
sight, follows from what has been said above ; to which must 
be added, that immediate revelation is not given, except 
what has been given in the Word, and such as is in the 
prophets and evangelists, and in the historical [parts of the 
Word] ; this is such, that every one may be taught accord- 
ing to the affections of his love, and the thoughts of his un- 
derstanding thence ; they, therefore, who are not in good as 
to life, [may be taught] a little, but they who are [in good as 
to life,] may be taught much, for these [latter] are taught by 
illustration from the Lord. Illustration is thus : light 5 con- 



76 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

joined to heat flows in through heaven from the Lord ; this 
heat, which is divine Jove, affects the will, whence man has 
the affection of good ; and this light, which is divine wisdom, 
affects the understanding, whence man has the thought of 
truth : from these two fountains, which are the will and un- 
derstanding, all things of the love and all things of man's 
science are affected, but only those things are excited and 
presented to view, which relate to the subject. Thus illustra- 
tion is effected by the Word from the Lord, in which [Word] 
every thing from the spiritual [world] which is in it, com- 
municates with heaven, and the Lord flows in through heaven, 
and into that which at the time is under man's view, and the 
influx is continuous and universal, extending to the most sin- 
gular things appertaining to every one; it is comparatively 
as the heat and light from the sun of the world, which oper- 
ate into all and singular things of the earth, and then vegetate 
according to the quality of their seed and [their] reception : 
how much more must this be the case with the heat and 
light from the divine sun, by virtue of which all things live? 
[quid nan color et lux ex Divino Sole, ex quibus omnia vivunt.~\ 
To be illustrated through heaven Ciuui the Lu i d is tu be 
illustrated by the Holy Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is the 
Divine Proceeding from the Lord as a sun, from which hea- 
ven is. Hence it is evident, that the Lord teachps the man 
of the church mediately through the Word, according to the 
love of his will, which he has acquired by life, and according 
to the light of his understanding, which he has thence ac- 
quired by science, and that it cannot be otherwise, because 
this is the divine order of influx. This now is the reason 
why the Christian religion is divided into churches, and within 
those [churches] into heresies, in general and in particular. 
But they who are out of the Christian orb, and have not the 
Word, are taught in like manner, for their illustration is 
effected by the religious principle which they have instead 
of the Word, and which is partly from the Word : the reli- 
gious principle among the Mahometans was in some respects 
taken from the Word of each Testament : with others, the 
religious principle is from the ancient [vetusto] Word, which 
afterwards was lost: with some, the religious principle is 
from the ancient [antiqua] church, which extended through 
a great part of the continent of Asia, and which, in like 
manner as our church at this day, was divided into several, 
in which that ancient Word was. From these churches 
were derived the religious principles of several nations, which 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 77 

yet, in process of time, became in many cases more or less 
idolatrous. They who derive their religious rites from such 
an origin, are taught of the Lord mediately by their reli- 
gious principle, in like manner as christians [are] by the Word, 
and this is effected, as, was said, by the Lord through hea- 
ven, and hence by the excitation of their will and at the 
same time of their understanding. But illustration by those 
religious principles is not like illustration by the Word ; 
illustration, by [those] religious principles, is like the moon 
in the evening, shining with less or greater degrees of bright- 
ness; whilst illustration by the Word is as by day the sun 
shining from morning to noon, thus likewise with less or 
greater degrees of brightness. Hence it comes to pass, that 
the church of the Lord, extended through the universal 
terrestrial globe, as to its light, which is Divine Wisdom, is 
as the day from noon to evening, and even to night : and as 
to its heat, which is Divine Love, is as the year from spring 
to autumn, and even to winter. 

72. That nevertheless the Lord provides that man may be 
reformed and saved by those things which he thence adopts 
into his religion. In the universal terrestrial globe, where 
there is any religion, there are two [Beings] who constitute 
it, which [two] are God and man, for there must be conjunc- 
tion [between them] ; and there are two [things] which con- 
stitute conjunction, the good of love, and the truth of faith ; 
the good of love is from God immediately, the truth of faith 
is also from God, but mediately; the good of love is that by 
which God leads man, and the truth of faith is that by which 
man is led : this is the same thing with what was said above : 
the truth of faith appears to man as his own, because it is 
from those things which he procures to himself as from him- 
self. God therefore conjoins himself to man by the good of 
love, and man conjoins himself to God as of himself by the 
truth of faith. Since conjunction is such, therefore the 
Lord compares himself with a bridegroom and husband, and 
compares the church with a bride and wife. The Lord flows 
in continually with the full good of love, nevertheless he can- 
not be conjoined to man in the full truth of faith, but only 
in that which appertains to man, and this is various : this may 
be given in greater fulness with those who are there where 
the Word is, but in less fulness with those who are there 
where the Word is not ; still however, both with the latter 
and the former, the fulness varies according to science and 
at the same time life according to that [science] ; hence it is > 
7* 



78 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

that it may be given greater with those who have not the 
Word, than with those who have the Word. Conjunction of 
God with man, and conjunction of man with God, is taught 
in the two tables which were written with the finger of God, 
which are called tables of the covenant, the testimony, and 
the law ; in one table is God, in the other is man : these 
tables are with all nations who have any religion ; from the 
first table they know that God is to be acknowledged, is to be 
sanctified, and is to be worshiped; from the other table they 
know that theft ought not to be committed, either openly or 
clandestinely by arts, neither is adultery to be committed, 
nor murder with hand or with hatred, neither ought man to 
bear false witness before a judge or before the world, and 
likewise that he ought not to desire those things. Man from 
his table knows the evils which are to be shunned, and in 
proportion as he knows them and shuns them as from him- 
self, in the same proportion God conjoins man to himself, and 
gives him from his table to acknowledge him, to sanctify him, 
and to worship him, and likewise gives him not to will evils, 
and also gives him to know truths in abundance and extent, 
[in amplitudine] so fa** as he does not will evils. Thus those 
two tables conjoin themselves with men, and the table of 
God is placed upon the table of man, and is put as one into 
the ark, over which is the propitiatory, which is the Lord, 
and over the propitiatory the two cherubs, which are the Word 
and what is from the Word, in which the Lord speaks with 
man, as with Moses and Aaron between the cherubs. In- 
asmuch now as conjunction of the Lord with man, and of 
man with the Lord, is [effected] by these [things] it is evident 
that every one who knows them, and lives according to them, 
not only from civil and moral law, but also from divine law, 
will be saved ; thus every one in his own religion, whether 
he be a Christian, or a Mahometan, or a Gentile. And, what 
is more, the man who from religion lives [according to] these 
[precepts] although in the world he knows nothing of the 
Lord, nor any thing more from the Word, yet he is in that 
state as to his spirit that he wills to be wise, wherefore after 
death he is informed by the angels, and acknowledges the 
Lord, and receives truths according to affection, and becomes 
an angel. Every such person is as a man who dies an infant, 
for he is led of the Lord, and is educated by angels. They 
who, from ignorance, because born in such a place, have no 
divine worship, are also informed after death like infants, 
and, according to their civil and moral life, receive the means 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 79 

of salvation : I have seen such, and they appeared at first as 
if not men, and afterwards I saw ihem as men, and I have 
heard them speaking sanely from the precepts of the deca- 
logue ; to inform such is the inmost angelic joy. From 
these [considerations] it is now evident that the Lord pro- 
vides that every man may be saved. 

73. That the Lord provides for every nation a universal 
medium of salvation. From what has been said above it is 
evident, that man, in whatsoever religion he lives, may be 
saved, for he knows evils and from evils the falses, which 
are to be shunned, and when he shuns them, he knows the 
goods which are to be done, and the truths which are to be 
believed ; the goods which he does, and the truths which he 
believes, before he has shunned evils, in themselves are not 
goods, and in themselves are not truths, because from man 
and not from the Lord : that they are not goods and truths 
in themselves before, is, because they are not alive with man. 
The man who knows all goods and all truths, as many as can 
be known, and does not shun evils, knows nothing, evils 
absorb them and eject them, and he becomes infatuated, not 
in the world, but afterwards; but the man who knows a few 
goods and a few truths, and shuns evils, he knows those 
[goods and truths] and superadds more, and becomes wise, 
if not in the world, yet afterwards. Since, therefore, every 
one, of every religion, knows evils, and from evils, falses, 
which are to be shunned, and, whilst he shuns them, knows 
the goods which are to be done, and the truths which are to 
be believed, it is evident that this is provided of the Lord, 
as a universal medium of salvation with every nation, which 
has any religion. This is given in all fulness amongst Chris- 
tians; and it is likewise given, although not in fulness, 
amongst Mahometans, as also amongst Gentiles : other things, 
which cause discrimination, are either ceremonious, which 
are indifferent, or are goods which they can do or not do, or 
are truths which they can believe or not believe, and yet be 
saved. Man sees what the quality of those things is, after 
evils are removed ; a Christian sees it from the Word, a 
Mahometan from the alcoran, and a Gentile, from his reli- 
gious principle. A Christian sees from the Word, that God 
is one, that the Lord is the Saviour of the world, that all 
good in itself good, and all truth in itself truth, is from God, 
and nothing from man ; that baptism is, that the holy supper 
is, that heaven and hell are, that there is a life after death, 
and that he who does good comes into heaven, and he who 



80 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

[does] evil, into hell : these things he believes from truth, 
and does from good, whilst he is not in evil; other things, 
which are not in accord with these and with the decalogue, 
he may omit. A Mahometan sees from the alcoran that 
God is one, that the Lord is the Son of God, that all good is 
from God, that heaven and hell are, that there is a life after 
death, and that the evils [mentioned] in the precepts of the 
decalogue are to be shunned : if he does these things, he 
also believes them, and is saved. A Gentile sees from his 
religious principle, that there is a God, that he is to be 
sanctified and is to be worshiped, that good is from him, 
that heaven and hell are, that there is a life after death, that 
the evils which are [mentioned] in the decalogue, are to be 
shunned : if he does these things, and believes them, he is 
saved. And whereas several of the Gentiles perceive God 
as a man and God-man is the Lord, therefore also after death, 
when they are informed by the angels, they acknowledge the 
Lord, and from the Lord afterwards receive truths which 
they did not know before. That they have not baptism, nor 
the holy supper, does not condemn ; the holy supper and 
baptism are for those alone, with whom the Word is, and to 
whom the Lord is known from the Word ; for they are 
symbols of that church, and are testifications and certifi- 
cations that they are saved, who believe and live according to 
the Lord's precepts in the Word. 

74. Something shall now be said concerninor the discourse 
of spirits with man: it is believed by many, that man may 
be taught of the Lord by spirits speaking with him ; but they 
who believe and will this, do not know that it is connected 
with danger to their souls. Man, so long as he lives in the 
world, is in the midst of spirits as to his spirit, and yet spirits 
do not know that they are with man, nor man that lie is with 
spirits : the reason is, because they are conjoined as to 
affections of the will immediately, and as to thoughts of the 
understanding mediately ; for man thinks naturally, but 
spirits think spiritually ; and natural and spiritual thought do 
not otherwise make one than by correspondences; and one 
by correspondences causes that one does not know any thing 
concerning the other. But as soon as spirits begin to speak 
with man, they come from their spiritual' state into the natural 
state of man, and then they know that they are with man, 
and conjoin themselves with the thoughts of his affection, 
and from those [thoughts] they speak with him : they cannot 
enter into any thing else, for similar affection and thence 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 81 

thought conjoins all, and dissimilar separates. It is from 
this [circumstance] that the speaking spirit is in the same 
principles with the man [to whom he speaks], whether they 
be true or whether they be false, and likewise that he ex- 
cites them, and by his own affection conjoined to the man's 
affection, strongly confirms them : hence it is evident that 
none other than similar spirits speak with man, or man- 
ifestly operate upon him, for manifest operatian coincides 
with speech ; hence it is that no other than enthusiastic 
spirits speak with enthusiasts; also, thai no other than Qua- 
ker spirits operate upon Quakers, and Moravian spirits upon 
Moravians ; the case would be similar with Arians, with 
Bocinians, and with other heretics. All spirits speaking with 
man, are no other than such as have been men in the world, 
and were then of such a quality : that this is the case has 
been given me to know by experiences. And what is ridi- 
culous, when man believes that the Jloly Spirit speaks with 
htm, or operates upon him, the spirit also believes that he is 
the Holy Spirit; this is common with enthusiastic spirits. 
From these [considerations] the danger is evident in which 
man re, who Bpeaka with upirits, or who manifestly feels their 
operation. Man is ignorant of the quality of his own affec- 
tion, whether it be good or evil, and with what others it is 
conjoined ; and if he is in the conceit of his own intelligence, 
[his attendant] spirit favors every thought which is I hence ; 
in like manner if any one has favor for [particular] principles, 
enkindled by a certain fire, which has place with those who 
are not in truths from genuine affection : when a spirit from 
similar affection favors man's thoughts or principles, then 
one leads the other, as the blind the blind, until each falls 
into the pit. The Pythonics formerly were of this descrip- 
tion, and likewise the magicians in Egypt and in Babel, who 
by reason of discourse with spirits, and of the operation 
of spirits felt manifestly in themselves, were called wise: but 
by this the worship of God was converted into the worship of 
demons, and the church perished ; wherefore such com- 
munications were forbidden the sons of Israel under penalty 
of death. 

75. It is otherwise with those whom the Lord leads, and 
he leads those who love truths, and will them from himself, - 
these are illustrated when they read the Word, for the Lord 
is in the Word, and speaks with every one according to his 
capacity: if these hear speech from spirits, which also they 
do occasionally, they are not taught, but are led, and this so 



82 ^ aThanasian creeC. 

providently, that the man is still left to himself, since, as was 
before said, every man is led of the Lord by affections, and 
thinks from them as from himself, in freedom; if this was 
not the case, man would not be reformable, neither could he 
be illustrated. But men are illustrated variously, every one 
according to the quality of his affection and thence intelli- 
gence : they who are in the spiritual affection of truth, are 
elevated into the light of heaven, so as to perceive the 
illustration. It has been given me to see it, and from it to 
perceive distinctly what comes from the Lord, and what from 
the angels ; what comes from the Lord is written, and what 
from the angels is not written. Moreover it has been given 
me to discourse with the angels as man with man, and like- 
wise to see the things which are in the heavens, and which 
are in the hells : the reason was, because the end of the 
present church approaches, and the beginning of a new one 
is at hand, which will be the New Jerusalem, to* which it is 
to be revealed, that the Lord rules the universe, both heaven 
and the world ; that heaven and hell are, and what is the 
quality of each; that men live also men after death, in 
heaven they who have been led of the Lord, in hell they who 
[have been led] of themselves; that the Word is the Divine 
itself of the Lord in the earth ; also that the last judgment is 
passed, lest man should expect it in his world to eternity ; 
besides many other things which are [effects] of the light 
now arising after darkness. 

76. The tenth law of the Divine Providence is, that man 
from his own proper prudence has led himself to eminence and 
to opulence, whilst they seduce : for man is led of the Divine 
Providence to such things as do not seduce, and which are 
serviceable to his eternal life : for all things of the Divine 
Providence ivith man respect ichat is eternal, because the life 
which is God, from which man is man, is eternal. There 
are two things which principally affect the minds of men, 
eminence and opulence; eminence is [derived] from the love 
of glory and of honors, opulence is [derived] from the love 
of money and possessions : they affect principally the minds 
[a?iimos], because they are proper to the natural man ; hence 
it is that they who are merely natural, know no otherwise 
than that eminence and opulence are blessings themselves, 
which [are] from God, when yet they may be curses, as may 
be clearly concluded from this, that they are the portion both 
of good and evil men : the eminent and the opulent have been 
seen by me in the heavens, and they have likewise been seen 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 83 

[by me] in the hells ; wherefore, as was said, when they do 
not seduce, they are from God, but when they seduce, they 
are from hell. The reason why man in the world does not 
distinguish between the two cases, whether they be from 
God or whether they be from hell, is, because they cannot be 
distinguished by the natural man separate from the spiritual, 
but they may be distinguished in the natural man from the 
spiritual ; and this likewise with difficulty, because the natural 
man is taught from infancy to assume a semblance of the 
spiritual man, and hence, when he performs uses to the 
church, to his country, to society and a fellow-citizen, thus 
to his neighbor, he not only says, but also can persuade him- 
self, that he has performed them for the sake of the church, 
his country, society, and a fellow-citizen, when yet perhaps 
he has performed them for the sake of himself and the world 
as ends : man is in this blindness, from this [cause], that he 
has not removed evils from himself by any combat, for so 
long as evils remain, man can see nothing from what is 
spiritual in his natural ; he is like a man dreaming who be- 
lieves himself awake, and he is like a bird of night which 
sees darkness as light; such is the natural man, when the 
gate of the light of heaven is shut ; the light of heaven is the 
spiritual [principle] illustrating the natural man. Now, 
whereas it is of the greatest concern to know whether 
eminence and opulence, or the love of glory and honor, also 
the love of money and of possessions, be ends or whether 
they be means, we shall first speak of an end and of means, 
since if they be ends they are curses, but if they are not 
ends, but means, they are blessings. 

77. The end, middle causes, and effects, are called also 
the principal end, the intermediate ends, and the ultimate 
end; these [latter] are called ends, because the principal end 
produces them, and is the all in them, and is their esse, and 
their soul. The principal end is man's will's love, the inter- 
mediate ends are subordinate loves, and the ultimate end is 
the will's love, existing as in its ef^gy. Inasmuch as the 
principal end is the will's love, it follows, that the intermediate 
ends, since they are subordinate loves, are foreseen, are pro- 
vided, and are produced by the understanding, and that the 
ultimate end is the use foreseen, provided, and produced 
from the will's love by the understanding, for every thing 
which love produces is use. These things are to be pre- 
mised, to the intent that what was said above may be per- 
ceived, viz. that eminence and opulence may be blessings, 
and likewise that they may be curses. 



84 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

78. Now, because the end, which is man's will's love, by 
the understanding provides or procures for itself means, by 
which may exist the ultimate end, to which the first end ad- 
vances by means, which end is the existing end, and this is 
use, it follows that the end loves the means, when they per- 
form that use, and that it does not love them if they do not 
perform it, and that in this case it rejects them, and by the 
understanding provides or procures for itself other means. 
Hence it is evident of what quality man is, if his principal 
end be the love of eminence, or the love of glory and honor, 
or if his principal end be the love of opulence, or the love of 
money or possessions, viz. that he regards all means as 
servants administering to the ultimate end, which is the ex- 
isting love, and this love is use from himself. As for ex- 
ample; in the case of a priest, whose principal end is the 
love of money or possessions, his means are the ministry, the 
Word, doctrine, erudition, preaching thence, and by these 
the instruction of men of the church, and their reformation 
and salvation ; these means are estimated by him from the 
end and for the sake of the end, but still they are not loved, 
although with some it appears as if they were loved, for it is 
opulence which is loved, inasmuch as this is the first and last 
end, and that end, as was said, is the all in the means. They 
say, indeed, that they are willing that the men of their church 
should be instructed, reformed, and saved ; but because 
they say this from an end of opulence, the things which they 
say are not the objects of their love, but are only the means 
of acquiring fame and gain on account of them. The case 
is similar with a priest, whose principal end is the love of 
eminence over others ; this will be seen, if gain or honor 
come from the means. It is altogether otherwise if the 
instruction, reformation, and salvation of souls be the prin- 
cipal end, whilst opulence and eminence are the means, 
then the man, a priest, is altogether of another character, for 
he is spiritual, whereas in the former [case] he is natural; 
with a spiritual priest opulence and eminence' are blessings, 
but with a natural [priest] they are curses. That this is so 
has been testified to me from much experience in the spiritual 
world : several have been there seen and heard, who said 
that they had taught, had written, and had reformed, but 
when the end or love of their will was manifested, it appear- 
ed that they had done all things for the sake of themselves 
and the world, and nothing for the sake of God and their 
neighbor, yea, that they cursed God, and cursed their 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 85 

neighbor ; they are such as are understood id Matt. vii. 22, 
23; and in Luke xiii. 26, 27. 

79. To take another example of a king, a prince, a consul, 
a governor, and an officer, whose principal end is the love of 
rule, and whose means are all things relative to their domin- 
ion, administration and function ; the uses, which they per- 
form, are not for the sake of the good of the kingdom, 
commonwealth, country, societies, and fellow-citizens, but 
for the sake of the delight of power, thus for the sake of 
themselves ; the uses themselves are not uses to them, but 
they are subservient to haughtiness [fastas] ; they perform 
them for the sake of appearances, and of distinction, they do 
not love them, but they commend and still make light of 
them, just as a lord his servants. I have seen such after 
death, and I was astonished ; they were devils amongst the 
fiery ones ; for the love of rule, whilst it is a principal end, 
is the very fire of hell. J have seen also others, whose love 
of rule was not a principal end, but the love of God and the 
neighbor, which is the love of uses ; they were angels, to 
whom were given dominions in the heavens. From these 
[considerations] it is further evident, that eminence may be 
a blessing, and that it may be a curse ; and that eminence 
as a blessing is from the Lord, and that eminence as a curse 
is from the devil. What the quality of the love of rule is, 
when it is a principal end, may be seen by every one who is 
wise, from the kingdom which, in the Word, is meant by 
Babel, in that it has set its throne in the heavens above the 
Lord, by claiming to itself all his power ; hence they have 
abrogated the divine means of worship, which are from the 
Lord by the Word, and in their place have instituted de- 
moniacal means of worship, which are adorations of livinor 
and dead men, also of sepulchres, carcases and bones. That 
kingdom is described by Lucifer in Isaiah, xiv. 4 to 24 : but 
they, who have exercised that dominion from the love of it, 
are Lucifers, not the rest. 

80. Since in the christian world the love of ruling and the 
love of riches universally reign, and those loves at this day 
are so deeply in-rooted, that it is not known how far they 
seduce, it is of moment that their quality should be taught: 
they seduce every man who does not shun evils because they 
are sins, for he who does not so shun evils, does not fear 
jGod, wherefore he remains natural ; and inasmuch as the 
Jloves proper to the natural man are the love of ruling and the 
love of riches, therefore he does not see with interior acknow- 

8 



86 



ATHANASJAN CREED* 



ledgment what the quality of those loves in himself is : he does 
not see unless he be reformed, and he is reformed only by 
combat against evils ; it is believed, that [he is reformed] by 
faith, but the faith of God has no place with man until he 
fights against evils [sedjides Dei non prius est]. When man 
is thus reformed, then light from the Lord through heaven 
flows in, and gives him the affection, and also the faculty, of 
seeing what the quality of those loves is, and whether they 
have rule with them, or are subservient, thus whether they 
are in the first place with him, and make as it were the head, 
or whether they are in the second place, and make as it were 
the feet ; if they have rule and are in the first place, they 
then seduce, and become curses, but if they are subservient 
and in the second place, they then do not seduce, and 
become blessings. I can assert, that all with whom the love 
of ruling is in the first place, are inwardly devils. This love 
is known from its delight, for it exceeds every delight of the 
life of men ; it exhales continually from hell, and the ex- 
halation appears as the fire of a great furnace, and enkindles 
the hearts of men, whom the Lord does not protect; the 
Lord protects all [who are] reformed. Still the Lord leads 
them, but in hell; yet only by external bonds, which are 
fears for the punishments of the law, and for the loss of re- 
putation, of honor, of gain, and of pleasures thence ; also 
by remunerations in the world ; nor can he bring them out 
of hell, because the love of ruling does not admit iuternal 
bonds, which are the fears of God, and the affections of good 
and truth, by which the Lord leads all, who follow [him], to 
heaven and in heaven. 

81. Now something shall be said on this [circumstance], 
that man is led of the Divine Providence to such things as do 
not seduce, and which are serviceable to eternal life ; those 
things also have reference to eminence and to opulence. 
That it is so, may be manifest from the things which have 
been seen by me in the heavens. The heavens are dis- 
tinguished into societies, and in each [society] are the 
eminent and the opulent, the eminent being there in such 
glory, and the opulent in such abundance, that the glory and 
abundance of the world are scarce any thing respectively. 
But all the eminent there are wise, and all the opulent there 
are knowing, wherefore eminence there is of wisdom, and 
opulence there is of science : this eminence and this opulence 
may be acquired in the world, as well by those who are 
eminent and opulent there, as by those who are not, for they 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 87 

are acquired by all in the world who love wisdom and science. 
To love wisdom is to love uses which are true uses, and to 
love science is to love the knowledges of good and truth for 
the sake of those uses. When uses are loved in preference 
to self aud the world, and the knowledges of good and truth 
for t he sake of those [uses], then uses are in the first place, 
and eminence and opulence in the second : it is so with all who 
are eminent and opulent in the heavens; they regard the 
eminence in which they are from wisdom, and the opulence 
in which they are from science, just as a man regards 
raiment. 

82. The eminence and opulence of the angels of heaven 
shall also be described : there are in the societies of heaven 
superior and inferior governors, all arranged by the Lord, 
and subordinate according to their wisdom and intelligence : 
their chief, who is wise above the rest, dwells in the midst, 
in a palace so magnificent, that nothing in the universal 
world can be compared with it ; its architectural qualities 
are so wondrous, that I can from truth declare, that they can- 
not be described by natural language, as to a hundredth part, 
for art itself is there in its art. Within in the palace 
are chambers and bed-chambers, in which all the furniture 
and ornaments are resplendent with gold and various pre- 
cious stones, in such forms as cannot be effigied, either in 
painting or engraving, by any artificer in the world : and, 
what is wonderful, singular things, even to the most singular 
of them, are for use, every one who enters sees for what use 
they are [intended], and also perceives it as from the trans- 
piration of the uses through their images : but every wise 
person, who enters, does not keep his eye long fixed in the 
images, but with his mind attends to the uses, since these 
delight his wisdom. Round about the palace are porticos, 
are paradisiacal gardens, and are little palaces; and singular 
things are celestial pleasantnesses themselves in the forms of 
their own beauty. Besides these magnificent [objects], there 
are attendant guards, each of them [clad] in shining garments ; 
besides many other things. The subordinate governors have 
similar magnificent and splendid abodes, according to the 
degrees of their wisdom, and they have wisdom according to 
the degrees of love of uses. Such things not only appertain 
to them, but also to the inhabitants, all of whomlove uses, 
and exhibit them by various works. But there are few 
things which can be described, and those which cannot be 
described are innumerable ; and because from their origin 



88 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

they are spiritual, they do not fall into the ideas of the natural 
man, and so neither into the sounds of his language, only 
into these, that wisdom builds for herself a habitation, and 
makes it conformable to herself, and that then, every thing 
which lies inmostly concealed in any science or in any art, 
is confluent, and gives effect. These things now are written 
that it may be known, that all things in the heavens also 
have reference to eminence and to opulence, but that em- 
inence there is of wisdom, and that opulence there is of 
science, and that such are the things to which man is led of 
the Lord by his Divine Providence. 

83. Something shall now be said concerning the uses, by 
which man and angel has wisdom : to love uses is nothing 
else than to love the neighbor, use in the spiritual sense is 
the neighbor. This may be seen from this [circumstance], 
that every one loves another not from his face and body, but 
from his will and understanding ; he loves him who wills well 
and understands well, and he does not love him who wills 
well and understands ill, nor who understands well and wills 
ill ; and because man is loved and not loved from these [prin- 
ciples] it follows that, the neighbor is that, from which every 
one is a man, and this is his spiritual [principle] : set ten 
men before thine eyes, that thou mayest choose one of them 
to be thy companion in any office or business ; dost thou not 
first explore them, and choose him who is nearest of use to 
thee ? wherefore he is thy neighbor * and is loved above the 
rest: or approach ten virgins, that thou mayest choose one 
of them for thy wife ; dost thou not first explore the qualities 
of each, and if she consents, thou betrothest to thyself her 
who is most in agreement with thy love ? she, therefore, is 
thy neighbor above the rest : if thou shouldst say to thyself, 
every man is my neighbor, and is therefore to be loved with- 
out distinction, then a man-devil might beloved equally with 
a man-angel, and a harlot equally with a virgin. The reason 
why use is the neighbor, is, because every man is estimated 
and loved, not from will and understanding alone, but from 
the uses which he performs, or is able to perform, from these 
principles:" hence a man of use is a man according to use, 
and a man not of use is a man not a man, for of this [latter] 
it is said, he is not useful for any thing : although he be 
tolerated in a community in the world, whilst he lives from 

* It may here be proper to note, that in the Latin language the term 
neighbor is expressed by proximus, which signifies nearest. 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



89 



his own principle, still after his decease, when he becomes a 
spirit, he is cast out into a desert. Man therefore is of a 
quality such as his use is : but uses are manifold, in general 
they are celestial and they are infernal ; celestial uses are 
those which are serviceable to the church, to a man's country, 
to society, and to a fellow-citizen, more and .less, and nearer 
and more remotely, for the sake of them as ends ; but infernal 
uses are those, which are serviceable only to a man's self and 
to those with whom he is connected [stm], and if [they be 
serviceable] to the church, to his country, to society, and a 
fellow-citizen, it is not for the sake of them as ends, but for 
the sake of himself as an end : nevertheless, every one ought 
to provide for himself and for his connexions the necessaries 
and requisites of life from love, but not from love of self. 
When man in the first place loves uses by doing them, and 
in the second place loves the world and himself, then the 
former is his spiritual principle, and the latter is his natural 
principle, and the spiritual has dominion, and the natural 
serves : hence it is evident what the spiritual principle is, 
and what the natural. This is understood by the Lord's 
words in Matthew : ' Seek yejirst the kingdom of the heavens^ 
and its justice, and all things shall be added unto you] vi. 
33 : the kingdom of the heavens is the Lord and his church, 
and justice is spiritual, moral, and civil good, and every 
good, which is done from the love of those goods, is use : 
the reason why, then, all things shall be added, is, because 
when use is in the first place, the Lord, from whom is all 
good, is in the first place and has rule, and gives whatever is 
conducive to eternal life and happiness; for, as was said, all 
things of the Divine Providence of the Lord appertaining to 
man, have respect to what is eternal : the all things which 
shall be added, are there spoken of food and raiment, because 
by food is also meant every thing internal which nourishes 
the soul, and by raiment every thing external, which, as a 
body, clothes it; every thing internal has reference to love 
and wisdom, and every thing external to opulence and 
eminence. From these [considerations] it is now evident, 
what is understood by loving uses for the sake of uses, and 
what the uses are from which man has wisdom, from which 
[wisdom] and according to which, every one has eminence 
and opulence in heaven. 

84. Since man was created to perform uses, and this is to 
love the neighbor, therefore all, how many soever they be, 
who come into heaven, must do uses: according to uses, 
8* 



90 ATHANASJAN CREED. 

and according to the love of them, they have all delight and 
blessedness, nor is heavenly joy from any other source; he 
who believes that such joy can be given in idleness, is much 
deceived ; yea, neither is any idle person tolerated in hell, 
for its inhabitants are in workhouses, and under a judge, who 
imposes labors mn the prisoners, which they are to do daily ; 
and to those who do not do them, there is given neither food 
nor raiment, but they stand hungry and naked, and are thus 
compelled [to labor] ; the difference is, that in hell they do 
uses from fear, but in heaven from love, and fear does not 
communicate joy, but love does. Nevertheless it is granted 
to interrupt employment by various [engagements] in consort 
with others, which [engagements] are recreations, thus also 
uses. It has been given me to see several things in heaven, 
several things in the world, and several things in the human 
body, and at the same time to consider their uses, and it has 
been revealed, that every thing in them, both great and small, 
was created from use, in use, and for use ; and that the part 
in which the ultimate, which is for use, ceases, is separated 
as noxious, and cast out as accursed. 

85. Something shall now be said concerning the life of 
animals, and afterwards concerning the soul of vegetables. 
The universal world, with all and every thing that is in it, 
have existed and do subsist from the Lord the creator of the 
universe. There are two suns, the sun of the spiritual world, 
and the sun of the natural world : the sun of the spiritual 
world is the divine love of the Lord, the sun of the natural 
world is pure fire : from the sun, which is divine love, com- 
mences every work of creation, and by [per] the sun which 
is fire, it is completed. All which proceeds from the sun 
which is divine love is called spiritual, and all which pro- 
ceeds from the sun which is fire, is called natural. What is 
spiritual from its own origin has life in itself, but what is 
natural from its own origin has nothing of life in itself: and 
whereas from these two fountains of the universe all things 
have existed, and do subsist, which are in both worlds, it 
follows that there is a spiritual and a natural principle in 
every created thing in this world, the spiritual being as a 
soul and the natural as the body, or the spiritual as the inter- 
nal and the natural as the external ; or the spiritual as the 
cause and the natural as the effect. That these two principles 
cannot be separated, in any one thing, is well known to 
every wise [person], for if you separate cause from effect, 
the effect perishes ; if [you separate] the internal from the 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 91 

external, the external perishes, in like manner as if [you 
separate] the soul from the body. That this conjunction is 
in singular things, yea, even in the most singular things of 
nature, has not yet been known : that it has not been known, 
is from ignorance concerning the spiritual world, concerning 
the sun there, and concerning heat and light there ; and also 
from the infatuated reasonings [vesania] of sensual men, in 
ascribing all things to nature, and rarely any thing to God, 
except creation in general, when, notwithstanding, not 
the least thing in nature is given, nor can be given, in 
which there is not a spiritual [principle]. That this is in 
all and singular the things of the three kingdoms of nature, 
and in what manner it is therein, will be explained in what 
follows. 

86. That the spiritual and natural principles in all and 
singular things of the world are so united as the soul is in 
all and singular things of the body, or as the efficient cause 
in all and singular tilings of the effect, or as the internal pro- 
ducing [principle] in all and singular things of its product, 
may be illustrated and confirmed from the subjects and ob- 
jects of the three kingdoms of nature, which are all things 
of the world. That such a union of things spiritual and 
things natural is in all and singular the subjects and objects 
of the animal kingdom is evident from the wonderful things 
which have been observed therein by learned men and socie- 
ties, and are left for the scrutiny of those who investigate 
causes. It is generally known that animals of all kinds, 
both great and small, as well those which walk and creep on 
the earth as those which fly in the air and which swim in the 
waters, know from something innate and implanted, which 
is called instinct, and also nature, how their species is to be 
propagated, how after the birth the young are to be brought 
up, how and from what aliments they are to be nourished ; they 
also know their proper food from the sight, smell, and taste, 
only, and where it is to be sought and gathered ; they know 
also their own habitations, and places of resort [lustra] ; 
they know also where their like and consociates are, from 
hearing the tone of their voice, and they know also from the 
variations of the tone what they want: the science of such 
things, viewed in itself, is spiritual, as likewise the affection 
from which it is, but their clothing is from nature, and also 
their production is by nature. Moreover an animal is alto- 
gether like a man as to the organs, members, and viscera of 
the body, and as to their uses ; an animal, like a man, has 



92 ATHANASTAN CREED* 

eyes and thence sight, has ears and thence hearing, has nos- 
trils and thence smelling, has a mouth and tongue and thence 
taste, also has the cuticular sense with its variations in every 
part of the body: and as to the interiors of the body, they 
have like viscera; they have two brains, they have a heart 
and lungs, they have a stomach, liver, pancreas, spleen, 
mesentery, intestines, with the other organs of chylification, 
sanguification, and repurgation, besides the organs of separa- 
tion and the organs of generation ; they are also alike as 
to the nerves, blood-vessels, muscles, skins, cartilages, and 
bones : the likeness is such, that man as to those things is an 
animal : that all those things in man have a correspondence 
with societies of heaven, has been shown in many places in 
the Arcana Ccelestia : consequently also similar things in 
animals ; from which correspondence it is evident, that the 
spiritual principle acts into the natural and thereby produces 
\_eclat] its effects, as the principal cause by its instrumental 
cause. But these are only general signs which testify con- 
junction in that kingdom. 

87. The particular signs bearing a similar testimony are 
still more numerous and more distinguished, which with 
some species of animals are such, that the sensual man, who 
does not think, unless in matter, compares things appertain- 
ing to beasts with those which appertain to man, and from 
infatuated intelligence concludes that the states of life are 
alike, even after death, saying, that if he himself lives after 
death, they live, or if they die, he himself also dies. The 
signs testifying, and still leading the sensual man into in- 
fatuation, are these ; that with certain animals there appears 
similar prudence and cunning, similar connubial love, similar 
friendship, and as it were charity, similar probity and benevo- 
lence, in a word, similar morality to what is with men; as, 
for example, certain dogs, from a genius innate in them, as 
from a sort of ingenuity, know how to act as faithful guards, 
from the transpiration of the affection of their master know 
as it were his will, search him out from apperceiving the 
habit of his footsteps and clothes, know the quarters of the 
globe [_plagas\ and thereby speedily find their way home, 
even through devious ways and dark forests, with other things 
of a like nature, from which the sensual man judges the dog 
also to be knowing, intelligent, and wise: nor is this to be 
wondered at, whilst he ascribes all such things in the dog, 
and also in himself, to nature : but it is otherwise with the 
spiritual man ; he sees that there is some spiritual [principle] 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 93 

which leads, and that this is united to the natural [principle]. 
Particular signs also are visible from birds, in that they know 
how to build their nests, to lay therein their eggs, to sit upon 
them, to hatch their young, and afterwards, from the love 
which is called storge, to provide for them warmth under 
their wings, and food out of their mouths, until they become 
clothed and are furnished with wings, when they also of 
themselves come into all the sciences of their parents, from 
the spiritual [principle] which is to them a soul, and from 
which they provide for themselves. Particular signs also are 
all things relating to the egg, in which lies deeply concealed 
the rudiment of a new bird, encompassed with every element 
necessary to the formation of the foetus, from its beginnings 
in the head to the full formation of all things of the body : 
is it possible that such provision can be made by nature? for 
this is not only to be produced, but also to be created, and 
nature does not create : what also has nature in common 
with life, unless that life may be clothed by nature, and may 
put forth itself and appear in form as an animal? Amongst 
the particular signs testifying the same thing, are also worms 
which feed on herbs, which, when they are to undergo a 
metamorphosis, encompass themselves as with a womb, that 
they may be born again, being therein changed into nymphs 
and chrysalises, which after their work and time is accom- 
plished [are changed] into beautiful butterflies, and fly into 
the air as into their heaven, where the female sports with her 
male companion, as one conjugial partner with another, and 
they nourish themselves from odoriferous flowers, and lay 
their eggs, thus providing that their species may live after 
them : the spiritual man sees that this is emulous of the re- 
birth of man and representative of his resurrection, and so 
is spiritual. Still more manifest are the signs exhibited by 
bees, which have a government analogous to the forms of 
government with men : they build for themselves houses of 
wax according to the rules of art in a series, with com- 
modious passages through which they come and go ; they 
fill the cells with honey from flowers; they appoint over 
themselves a queen, from whom as from a common parent, 
a future race may come, dwells in her palace above, in the 
midst of her guards of bees, who, when the time comes 
that she should become a mother, follow her, with a pro- 
miscuous multitude after them, as she goes from cell to cell 
and lays an egg in each, and so continually until the matrix 
is emptied, when she returns home ; this is several times 



94 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

repeated: her guards, who are called drones, because they 
perform no other use than as so may domestics to one mis- 
tress, and perhaps inspire her with something of amatory 
desire, and because they perform no labor are afterwards 
judged useless, and therefore, lest they should invade and 
consume the produce of others' labors, are brought out, 
and deprived of their wings; thus the community is purged 
of its slothful members : moreover when the new progeny is 
grown up, they are commanded with a general voice, which 
is heard as a murmur, to depart and to seek a habitation and 
nourishment for themselves; they also do depart and collect 
into a swarm, and afterwards institute a similar order of 
things in a new hive : these and various other things, dis- 
covered and communicated in books by attentive observers, 
are not unlike the governments instituted and ordained in 
kingdoms and republics by human intelligence and wisdom, 
according to the laws of justice and judgment : also that, 
like men, [these animals] know the approach of winter, 
against which they make a provision of food, lest they should 
then perish with hunger : who can deny that such things are 
spiritual in their origin, or suppose that they can exist from 
any other? All these things are to me [convincing] argu- 
ments and documents of a spiritual influx into the things of 
nature, and I greatly wonder how they can be used as argu- 
ments and documents for the operation of nature alone, as they 
are with certain persons, who are infatuated from their own 
intelligence. 

88. No one can know what is the quality of the life of 
the beasts of the earth, of the birds- of heaven, and fishes of 
the sea, unless it be known what their soul is, and its quality 
thereof: that every animal has a soul, is known, for they 
live, and life is a soul, wherefore also in the Word they are 
called living souls. That the soul in its ultimate form, which 
is corporeal, such as appears before the sight, is the animal, 
cannot be better known from any other source, than from 
the spiritual world : for in that world, in like manner as in 
the natural world, are seen beasts of all kinds, and birds of 
all kinds, and fishes of all kinds, and so like in form, that 
they cannot be distinguished from those which are in our 
world ; but the difference is, that in the spiritual world they 
exist apparently from the affections of angels and spirits, so 
that they are appearances of affections, wherefore also they 
vanish away as soon as the angel or spirit departs, or his 
affection ceases ; hence it is evident, that their soul is nothing 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 95 

else ; consequently that as many genera and species of ani- 
mals are given, as there are genera and species of affections. 
That the affections, which in the spiritual world are represent- 
ed by animals, are not interior spiritual affections, but that 
they are exterior spiritual, which are called natural, will 
be seen in what follows ; likewise also that there is not a hair 
or thread of wool on any beast, not the smallest portion of 
a quill or feather upon any bird, nor of a fin or scale on any 
fish, which is not from the life of their soul, thus which is 
not from a spiritual [principle] clothed by the natural. But 
something shall first be said concerning the animals which 
appear in heaven, in hell, and in the world of spirits, which 
is in the midst between heaven and hell, 

89. Since the universal heaven is distinguished into socie- 
ties, in like manner the universal hell, and also the universal 
world of spirits, and the societies are arranged according to 
the genera and species of affections, and since the animals 
there are appearances of affections, as has been just said, 
therefore one kind of animal with its species appears in one 
society, and another in another, and all kinds of animals 
with their species in the whole together. In the societies of 
heaven appear the mild and clean animals, in the societies of 
hell, the savage and unclean beasts, and in the world of spirits, 
beasts of a mediate character. They have been often seen 
by me, and it has been given thereby to know the quality of 
the angels and spirits there ; all there are known from the 
appearances which are near and about them, and their affec- 
tions, from various things, and also from animals. In the 
heavens I have seen lambs, sheep, she-goats, so similar to 
the lambs, sheep and goats in the world that there is no 
difference; also I have seen turtle doves, pigeons, birds of 
paradise, and several others beautiful in form and color; 
likewise fishes in the waters have been seen, but these in the 
lowest parts of heaven. But in the hells are seen dogs, 
wolves, foxes, tigers, swine, mice, and several other kinds of 
savage and unclean beasts, besides venomous serpents of 
many species, likewise crows, owls and bats. But in the 
world of spirits are seen camels, elephants, horses, asses, 
oxen, stags, lions, leopards, bears, also eagles, kites, mag- 
pies, peacocks, and storks. There have also been seen 
compound animals, such as were seen by the prophets, and 
I are described in the Word, as in the Apoc. xiii. 2, and else- 
where. Since there is such a similitude between the animals 
appearing in that world and the animals in this world that no 



96 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

difference can be discerned, and the former derive their ex- 
istence from the affections of the angels of heaven, and from 
the cupidities of the spirits of hell, it follows that natural 
affections and cupidities are their souls, and that these beino- 
clothed with a body, are, in effigy, animals. But what affec- 
tion or cupidity is the soul of this or that animal, whether it 
be beast or wild beast of the earth, whether a bird of day or 
of night, whether a fish of limpid or fetid water, does not 
belong to this place to expound: they are frequently men- 
tioned in the Word, and have a signification there according 
to their souls; what lambs, sheep, she-goats, rams, kids, 
he-goats, heifers, oxen, camels, horses, asses, stags, signify, 
likewise various sorts of fowls, may be seen unfolded in the 
Arcana Ccelestia. 

90. These things being premised, it shall be explained 
what the soul of beasts is. The soul of beasts, considered 
in itself, is spiritual ; for affection, whatsoever may be its 
quality, whether good or evil, is spiritual, for it is a deriva- 
tion of some love, and derives its origin from the heat and 
light which proceed from the Lord as a sun, and whatever 
proceeds thence is spiritual. That evil affections, which are 
called concupiscences, are also thence is evident from what 
has been said before concerning the evil loves and thence 
insane cupidities of genii and infernal spirits. Beasts and 
wild beasts, whose souls are similar evil affections, were not 
created from the beginning, as mice, venomous serpents, 
crocodiles, basilisks, vipers, and the like, with the various 
kinds of noxious insects, but have originated with hell, in 
stagnant lakes, marshes, putrid and fetid waters, and where 
there are cadaverous, stercoraceous, and urinous effluvia, 
with which the malignant loves of the infernal societies com- 
municate : that such a communication exists, has been given 
me to know from much experience: there is also in every 
spiritual [principle] a plastic force, where homogeneous ex- 
halations are present in nature ; and there is also in every 
spiritual [principle] a propagative force, for it not only forms 
organs of sense and motion, but also organs of prolification, 
by wombs or by eggs. But from the beginning only useful 
and clean beasts were created, whose souls are good affec- 
tions. It is, however, to be known, that the souls of beasts 
are not spiritual in that degree in which the souls of men 
are, but they are spiritual in an inferior degree ; for there 
are given degrees of spirituality, and the affections of the 
inferior degree, although viewed in their origin they are 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 97 

spiritual, are yet to be called natural ; [they are] to be so 
called, because they are similar to the affections of the natural 
man. There are in man three degrees of natural affections, 
similarly in beasts; in the lowest degree are the insects of 
various kinds, in the superior are the fowls of the heaven, 
and in a still superior degree are the beasts of the earth, 
which were created from the beginning. 

91. The difference betwixt men and beasts, is as between 
waking and dreaming, and as between light and shade. 
Man is spiritual and at the same time natural, whereas a 
beast is not spiritual but natural. Man has will and under- 
standing, and his will is the receptacle of the heat of heaven, 
which is love, and his understanding is the receptacle of the 
light of heaven, which is wisdom ; but a beast has not will 
and understanding, but instead of will has affection, and 
instead of understanding, science. The will and understand- 
ing with man can act as one, and they can act not as one, for 
man can think as from his understanding what is not of his 
will, for he can think what he does not will, and vice versa; 
but with a beast affection and science make one, and cannot 
be separated ; for [a beast] knows what appertains to its affec- 
tion, and is affected with what appertains to its science; 
since the two faculties, which are called science and affec- 
tion, with a beast cannot be separated, therefore a beast 
could not destroy the order of its life, hence it is that it 
is born into all the science of its affection : it is otherwise 
with man ; his two faculties of life, which are called under- 
standing and will, can be separated, as was said above, there- 
fore he could destroy the order of his life, by thinking contrary 
to his will, and willing contrary to his understanding, and 
hereby he also has destroyed it ; hence it is that he is born 
into mere ignorance, that from it he may be introduced into 
order by sciences through the medium of the understanding. 
The order, into which man was created, is to love God 
above all things and his neighbor as himself, and the state 
into which man has come since he destroyed that order, is 
that he loves himself above all things, and the world as 
himself. Whereas man has a spiritual mind, and this is 
above his natural mind, and his spiritual mind is capable of 
intuition into such things as appertain to heaven and the 
church, and likewise to moral and civil laws, and these things 
have reference to truths and goods, which are called spiritual, 
moral, and civil, besides the natural things of the sciences, 
and to their opposites, which are falses and evils, therefore 
9 



98 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



man cannot only think analytically, and thence draw con- 
clusions, but also receive influx through heaven from the 
Lord, and become intelligent and wise: this no beast is 
capable of; what it knows is not from any understanding 
but from the science of affection, which is its soul. The 
science of affection is given in every thing spiritual, because 
the spiritual proceeding from the Lord as a sun, is Jio-ht 
united to heat, or is wisdom united to love, and science is 
of wisdom, and affection is of love, in the degree which is 
called natural. Since man has a spiritual mind, and at the 
same time a natural mind, and his spiritual mind is above 
his natural mind, and the spiritual mind is such that it is 
capable of the intuition and love of truths and goods in every 
degree, conjointly with the natural mind, and abstractedly 
from it, it follows that the interiors of man, appertaining to 
each mind, can be elevated to the Lord by the Lord, and be 
conjoined to him ; hence it is that every man lives eternally: 
it is not so with a beast, that does not enjoy any spiritual 
mind, but only a natural, hence its interiors, which are only 
of science and affection, cannot be elevated by the Lord, 
and conjoined to him, wherefore a beast does not live after 
death. A beast is indeed led by a certain spiritual influx, 
falling into its soul, but inasmuch as its spiritual [principle] 
cannot be elevated, it can only be determined downwards, 
and to regard such things as appertain to its affection, which 
have reference only to the things appertaining to nourishment, 
habitation, and propagation, and from the science of its affec- 
tion to know them by means of sight, odor, and taste. 
Since man, from his spiritual mind can think rationally, 
therefore he can speak also, for to speak is of thought from 
the understanding, which can see truths in spiritual light; 
but a beast, which has not any thought from understanding, 
but only science from affection, can only utter sounds, and 
vary the sound of its affection according to its appetites. 

92. Something shall now be said concerning the vegeta- 
ble kingdom, and concerning its soul, which is called vegeta- 
tive soul : that this also is spiritual, is not known in the 
world. By vegetative soul is understood the conatus and 
effort of producing a vegetable from its seed progressively 
even to [new] seeds, and thereby of multiplying itself to 
infinity, and of propagating itself to eternity ; for there is 
as it were an idea of what is infinite and eternal in every 
vegetable; for one seed may be multiplied through a certain 
number of years so as to fill the whole earth, and also may 






ATHANASIAN CREED. 9VJ 

be propagated from seed to seed without end : this, together 
with the wonderful progression of growth from the root into 
a germ, afterwards, into a trunk, likewise into branches, 
leaves, flowers, fruits, even into new seeds, is not natural but 
spiritual. In like manner vegetables, in many respects, have 
a near resemblance to such things as relate to the animal 
kingdom, as that they exist from seed, in which there is as 
it were a prolific principle, that they produce a germ as an 
infant, a trunk as a body, branches as arms, a top like a head, 
barks as skins, leaves as lungs, that they grow in years, and 
afterwards blossom as maids before their nuptials, and after 
blossoming expand as it were wombs or eggs, and bring forth 
fruit as foetuses, in which are new seeds, from which, as in 
the animal kingdom, [new] prolifications or fructifications 
of the same species or family take place : these and many 
other things which are observed by those who are skilled in 
the botanic art, who have instituted a parallel betwixt the 
two kingdoms, indicate that the conatus and effort to such 
things is not from the natural world but from the spiritual. 
That a living force as the cause principal is the spiritual 
principle, and that a dead force as the cause instrumental is 
the natural principle, will be seen in what follows. 

93. How the spiritual [principle] flows in and acts into 
vegetables, and produces all that conatus, effort, and action, 
cannot be comprehended by any understanding, unless the 
following principles are first unfolded: I. That nothing in 
nature exists and subsists unless from something spiritual, 
and by it. II. That nature in itself is dead, being created 
that the spiritual principle may be thereby clothed with forms, 
which may serve for use, and that it may be terminated. III. 
That there are two common forms, the spiritual and the 
natural, the spiritual such as appertains to animals, and the 
natural such as appertains to vegetables, IV. That there 
are three forces in every thing spiritual, a force of acting, a 
force of creating, and a force of forming. V. That from 
the spiritual principle, by those forces, exist vegetables, and 
also animals, as well those which appear in heaven, as those 
which appear in the world. VI. That the same origin and 
thence soul appertains to both, the difference being only of 
the forms into which the influx is effected. VII. And that 
origin is in use. Unless these things are first unfolded, the 
cause of so many wonderful effects in the vegetable kingdom 
cannot be seen by the understanding. 

94. That nothing in nature exists except from something 



100 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

spiritual^ and by it, is, because nothing can exist except from 
another, so lastly from Him, who is and exists in himself, 
He is God, thus also God is called esse and existere, Jah from 
esse and Jehovah from esse and exist ere in himself. That 
nothing exists in nature but from a spiritual [principle] is, 
because there cannot any thing be given, unless it has a soul ; 
all that is called soul which is essence, for what has not in 
itself an essence, this does not exist, for it is a nonentity, 
because there is no esse from which it is ; thus it is with 
nature ; its essence from which it exists is the spiritual 
[principle], because this has in itself the divine esse, and 
also the divine power of acting, creating, and forming, as 
will be seen from what follows : this essence may also be 
called soul : because all that is spiritual lives, and what is 
alive, when it acts into what is not alive, as into what is 
natural, causes it either to have as it were life, or to derive 
somewhat of the appearance thereof from the living princi- 
ple : the latter [is the case] in vegetables, the former in 
animals. That nothing in nature exists but from what is 
spiritual, is because no effect is given without a cause, what- 
ever exists in effect is from a cause ; what is not from a 
cause, is separated : thus it is with nature; the singular and 
most singular things thereof are an effect from a cause which 
is prior to it, and which is interior to it, and which is superior 
to it, and also is immediately from God : for a spiritual 
world is given, that world is prior, interior, and superior to 
the natural world, wherefore every thing of the spiritual 
world is a cause and every thing of the natural world is an 
effect. Indeed one thing exists from another progressively 
even in the natural world, but this by causes from the spirit- 
ual world, for where the cause of the effect is, there also is 
the cause of the effect efficient; for every effect becomes an 
efficient, cause in order even to the ultimate, where the effec- 
tive power subsists; but this is effected continually from a 
spiritual [principle], in which alone that force is : and so it 
is, that nothing in nature exists except from something 
spiritual and by it. There are two mediate causes in nature 
by which every effect or production and formation t'ere is 
produced : these mediate causes are light and heat ; light 
modifies substances and heat actuates them; each is from the 
presence of the sun in them : the presence of the sun which 
appears as light, causes the activity of the forces or sub- 
stances of every individual according to the form in which it 
is from creation ; this is modification : but the presence of 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



101 



the sun which is perceived as heat, expands individuals, and 
produces the power of acting and effecting according to 
their forms, by actuating the conatus [or effort] in which 
they are from creation : the conatus, which by means of 
heat becomes an active power even in the most minute forms 
of nature, is from the spiritual [principle] acting in them 
and into them. 

95. That nature in itself is dead, being created that the 
spiritual principle may be clothed from it with forms, which 
may serve for use, and that it may be terminated. Nature 
and life are two distinct things : nature commences from the 
sun of this world, and life commences from the sun of hea- 
ven. The sun of the world is pure fire, and the sun of 
heaven is pure love : what proceeds from the sun which is 
pure fire, this is called nature, and what proceeds from the 
sun, which is pure love, this is called life : what proceeds 
from pure fire is dead, but what proceeds from pure love is 
alive: hence it is evident, that nature in itself is dead. 
That nature serves for clothing the spiritual principle, is 
manifest, from the souls of beasts, which are spiritual affec- 
tions, being clothed from materials which are in the world ; 
that their bodies are material, is known, in like manner as the 
bodies of men. That the spiritual [principle] can be cloth- 
ed by the material, is, because all things which exist in the 
world of nature, as well the things of the atmospheres, as of 
the waters and earth, as to all and every individual thereof, 
are effects produced from a spiritual [principle] as a cause, 
and the effects act as one with the cause and are altogether 
concordant, according to this axiom, that nothing exists in 
the effect which is not in the cause; but the difference is, 
that the cause is a living force, because it is spiritual, but 
the effect thence derived is a dead force, because it is natural. 
From this [circumstance] it is, that in the natural world are 
given such things as altogether agree with those which are 
in the spiritual world, and that they can be aptly conjoined. 
Hence then it is that it is said, that nature was created in 
order that the spiritual [principle] might be clothed from it 
with forms, which may serve for use. That nature is created 
in order that the spiritual principle may therein be terminated, 
follows from what was said, that the things which exist in 
the spiritual world are causes, and that those which are in 
the natural world are effects, and effects are terminations: 
there must in all cases be an ultimate, where there is a first 
[principle], and because in the ultimate co-exists all that is 
9* 



102 ATHANAS1AN CREED. 

intermediate from the first [principle], the work of creation 
in ultimates is perfect. For this end the sun of the world 
was created, and by the sun nature, and lastly the terraque- 
ous globe, that there might be ultimate materials, into which 
all that is spiritual might close, and in which creation might 
subsist : to the end also that the work of creation might 
continually persist and endure, which is effected by the gen- 
erations of men and animals, and by the germinations of 
vegetables; and to the end, that all things might thence 
return to their first [source] [ad Primum a quo] which is 
effected by or through man. That intermediates co-exist in 
ultimates, is evident from the axiom, that there is nothing in 
the effect, which is not in the cause, thus from the continuity 
of causes and effects from the first [principle] even to the 
ultimate. 

96. That there are two common forms, a spiritual and a 
natural, a, spiritual such as appertains to animals, and a 
natural such as appertains to vegetables. Hence it is that 
all things of nature, besides the sun, the moon, and the 
atmospheres, make three kingdoms, the animal, the vege- 
table, and the mineral, and that the mineral kingdom is only 
a storehouse, in which are, and from which are taken, those 
things which compose the forms of the two [other] king- 
doms, the animal and the vegetable. The forms of the 
animal kingdom, which in one word are called animals, are 
all according to the flux of spiritual substances and forces, 
which flux, from the conatus which is in them, tends to the 
human form, and to all and singular things thereof, from 
head to heel, thus in general to produce organs of sense 
and organs of motion, likewise organs of nutrition and also 
of prolification : hence it is, that the universal heaven is in 
such a form, and that all angels and spirits are in such a 
form, as likewise men on the earth are in such a form ; and 
also all beasts, birds and fishes; for all these have similar 
organs. This animal form derives a conatus to such things 
from the first [principle], from whom all things are, who is 
God, because he is Man : this conatus and consequent de- 
termination of all spiritual forces, cannot be given and exist 
from any other source, for it is given in the greatest things 
and in the least, in first [principles] and in last, in the spirit- 
ual world and thence in the natural world ; but with a differ- 
ence of perfection according to degrees. But the other 
form, which is the natural form, and in which are all vegeta- 
bles, derives its origin from the conatus and consequent flux 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 103 

of natural forces, which are atmospheres, and are called 
ethers, in which there is that conatus from the determination 
of spiritual forces, which tends to the animal form, and from 
the continual operation of these into natural forces, which 
are ethers, and thereby into matters of the earth, of which 
vegetables are composed : that hence is its origin, is evident 
from what has been said above concerning the likeness and 
tendency to the animal form which appears in them. That 
all things of nature are in an effort to that form, and that 
the ethers have a tendency to produce it impressed upon 
them, and so implanted from a spiritual principle, is evident 
from many considerations; as from the universal vegetation 
on the surface of the whole earth, likewise from the vegeta- 
tion of minerals into such forms in mines, where there are 
given apatures, and from the vegetation of shelly substances 
into corals in the bottom of the sea, and even from the forms 
of the particles of snow, which are emulous of vegetables. 
97. That there are three forces in every thing spiritual, 
a force of acting, a force of creating, and a force of form- 
ing : a force of acting, because the spiritual [principle] 
proceeds from the first fountain of all forces, which is the 
sun of heaven, and that is the divine love of the Lord, and 
love is the essential agent, and thence proceeds the living 
force which is life. The force of creating is a force of 
producing causes and effects from beginning to end, and 
reaches from the first by intermediates to the last; the first 
is the sun itself of heaven, which is the Lord, intermediates 
are things spiritual, afterwards things natural, likewise things 
terrestrial, from which ultimately are productions: and be- 
cause that force in the creation of the universe extended 
from the first to the ultimate, therefore it extends afterwards 
in like manner, that productions may be continual, other- 
wise they would fail : for what is first continually regards 
the ultimate as an end, and unless the first had regard to the 
ultimate continually from itself, by intermediates, according 
to the order of creation, all things would perish : where- 
fore productions, which are especially animals and vegeta- 
bles, are continuations of creation. It matters not that the 
continuations are effected by seeds, still it is the same creat- 
ive force which produces : that there are certain seeds [of 
new plants] also still producing, is testified by some from 
experience. The force of forming is the ultimate force 
from ultimates, for it is the force of producing animals and 
vegetables from the ultimate matters of nature, which are 



104 ATHAN ASIAN CREED. 

collected in the earth. The forces which are in nature 
from its origin, which is the sun of the world, are not living 
forces, but dead forces; which are no other than as are the 
forces of heat in man and in an animal, which keep the 
body in such a state, that the will by affection, and the un- 
derstanding by thought, which are spiritual, may flow in and 
perform their operations in it : nor are they any other than as 
are the forces of light in the eye, which only cause that the 
mind, which is spiritual, may see by this its organ; the light 
of the world does not see any thing, but the mind by the 
light of heaven. It is the same with vegetables; he who 
believes, that the heat and light of the sun of the world ope- 
rate any further than to open and dispose the things proper 
to nature to receive influx from the spiritual world, is much 
deceived. 

98. That from the spiritual [principle], by those forces, 
exist vegetables, and also animals, as well those which appear 
in heaven, as those which are in the world. That such things 
also exist in heaven, is, because those forces are in the spirit- 
ual [principle] in the greatest things and in the least, in first 
and in last, thus both in heaven and in the world ; its prima- 
ries are in the heavens, its ultimates are in the world: for 
there are degrees of spiritual things, and each degree is dis- 
tinct from the other, and the prior or superior degree is more 
perfect than the posterior or inferior : this may appear from 
the light and from the heat in the heavens, and from the 
wisdom of the angels thence derived ; the light in the 
supreme or third heaven is so splendid from a flaming [prin- 
ciple], that it exceeds a thousand times the meridian light of 
the world ; in the middle or second heaven the light is less 
bright, but still it exceeds a hundred times the meridian light 
of the world ; in the ultimate or first heaven the light is 
similar to the meridian light of the world. There are also 
degrees of heat, which in heaven is love, and according to 
those [degrees] the angels have wisdom, intelligence and 
science : all that is spiritual is of the light and heat which 
are from the Lord as a sun, and all wisdom and intelligence 
are from these. As many degrees of things spiritual are 
also given under the heavens, or in nature, which are in- 
ferior degrees of things spiritual, as may appear from the 
natural mind of man, and from its rationality and sensuality ; 
rational men are in the first degree thereof, sensual men are 
in the ultimate, and some are in the middle, and all thought 
and affection of the natural mind, is spiritual. Those three 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 105 

forces, which are the force of acting, the force of creating, 
and the force of forming, are in the spiritual [principle] in 
every degree thereof, but with a difference of perfection ; 
but as there is nothing but what has its ultimate wherein it 
terminates and subsists, so also has the spiritual [principle], 
this ultimate is in the earth, in its lands and waters ; and 
from this ultimate the spiritual [principle] produces vegeta- 
bles of all kinds, from the tree to the blade of grass, in 
which what remains of the spiritual [principle] manifests 
itself only in a certain similitude with the animals, of which 
we treated above. 

99. Something shall now be said concerning vegetables in 
heaven, the animals there having been treated of before. 
There are in the heavens, as in the earth, vegetables of all 
kinds and all species ; yea, there are in the heavens vegeta- 
bles which are not in the earth, for there are compounds of 
[different] genera and species, with infinite variation : this 
they derive from their origin, of which below : but the genera 
and species of vegetables differ in the heavens as the genera 
and species of animals there, of which [we have spoken] 
above. According to the degrees of light and of heat there, 
there appear paradisiacal gardens, groves, fields and plains, 
and in them shrubberies, flower-beds, and grass-plots. In 
the inmost or third heaven, especially, there are shrubs, 
whose fruits drop oils; there are flower-beds from which are 
scattered abroad fragrant odors, and in the seeds thereof 
are fragrant scents and sweet oils ; there are grass-plots 
which abound with similar scents. In the middle or second 
heaven are shrubs, whose fruits drop wine ; there are beds of 
flowers from which exhale pleasant odors, and in whose 
seeds are delicate scent : [there are] grass-plots in like man- 
ner. In the lowest or first heaven similar things exist as in 
the inmost and middle heaven, with a difference of delights 
and pleasantnesses according to degrees. In the inmost 
heaven there are also fruits and seeds of pure gold, in the 
middle heaven of silver, and in the lowest heaven of copper; 
and there are also flowers of precious stones and of crystals. 
All these things are germinations from the earths there ; 
there are earths there as with us, but nothing is produced 
there from seed sowed, but from seed created, and creation 
there is instantaneous, and the duration sometimes long and 
sometimes momentary ; for they exist by the forces of the 
light and heat from the sun of heaven, which is the Lord, 
without aiding and auxiliary powers by the light and heat of 



106 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



the sun of [this] world : hence the matters in our earths 
are fixed, and the germinations constant; but the matters or 
substances in the earths, which are in the heavens, are not 
fixed, and hence neither are the germinations from them 
constant : all things there are spiritual in a natural appear- 
ance ; [it is] otherwise in the earths subject to the sun of 
our world. These things are adduced, that it may be con- 
firmed, that in every thing spiritual, whether it be in heaven 
or in the world, there are those three forces, viz. the force 
of acting, the force of creating, and the force of forming, 
and that these forces continually go through to their ultimate, 
where they terminate and subsist; and this not only in first 
principles, but also in ultimates; hence it is, that in the 
heavens there equally exist earths, for the earths there are 
those forces in ultimates: the difference is, that the earths 
there are spiritual from [their] origin, and here the earths are 
natural ; and that the productions from our earths, are effect- 
ed from the spiritual [principle] through the medium of 
nature, but in those earths without nature. 

100. That both animals and vegetables have the same 
origin and thence the same soul, with the difference only of 
the forms which receive influx. That the origin of animals, 
which also is their soul, is a spiritual affection, such as ap- 
pertains to man in his natural [degree] was shown above ; 
that vegetables have also the same origin, is evident, espe- 
cially from the vegetables in the heavens, as that they appear 
there according to the affections of the angels, and also that 
they represent those [affections], insomuch, that in them, as 
in their types, the angels see and know their own affections, 
as to their quality ; and that they are also changed, according 
to those [affections], but this is effected out of [extra'] the 
societies; the only difference is, that the affections appear 
formed into animals by the spiritual [principle] in its middle 
principles, and that they appear formed into vegetables in its 
ultimates, which are the earths there; for the spiritual, from 
which [they exist], in middle principles is alive, but in ulti- 
mates is not alive; the spiritual principle retains in ultimates 
no more of life, than that it may produce the likeness of being 
alive; nearly similar to what takes place in the human body, 
in which the ultimates thereof, which are produced from the 
spiritual principle, are the cartilages, bones, teeth, and nails, 
in which what is alive, which is from the soul, terminates. 
That the vegetative soul is from the same origin as the soul 
of the beasts of the earth, of the birds of the heaven, and 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 107 

of the fishes of the sea, does not appear at first view as that 
it was so, by reason that the one lives, and the other does not 
live, but still it is manifestly evident from the animals, to- 
gether with the vegetables seen in the heavens, and also from 
those which are seen in the hells : in the heavens there ap- 
pear beautiful animals, and similar vegetables ; but in the 
hells noxious animals, and vegetables also similar; and an- 
gels and spirits are known, from the appearances of the ani- 
mals, and in like manner from the appearances of the vegeta- 
bles ; there is a plenary concordance with their affections ; 
yea the concordance is such, that an animal can be changed 
into a concordant vegetable, and a vegetable into a concordant 
animal. The angels of heaven know what of affection is 
represented in one and the other; and I have heard, and 
I have also perceived, that it is similar [in both cases]. It 
has also been granted me to know manifestly the correspon- 
dence not. only of the animals but also of the vegetables with 
the societies of heaven, and with the societies of hell, thus 
with their affections, for societies and affections in the spiritual 
world make one. Hence it is that in many places in the 
Word gardens, groves, forests, trees, likewise various plants 
are mentioned, and that they there signify spiritual things 
according to their origins, all which have reference to affec- 
tions. The difference, therefore, between vegetables in the 
spiritual world and in the natural world, is, that in the spirit- 
ual world they exist momentaneously, according to the affec- 
tions, of the angels and spirits there, as well the seeds as the 
germinations ; but in the natural world their origin is implant- 
ed in the seeds, from which they are reproduced annually. 
Besides, there are two things proper to nature, time and con- 
sequent succession, and space and consequent extension ; but 
these are not given in the spiritual world, as proper thereto, 
but there are appearances of the states of their life ; whence 
also it is that from the earths there, which are from a spiritual 
origin, vegetables are produced in a moment, and also in a 
moment disappear ; this however only takes place when the 
angels depart, but when they do not depart, [the vegetables] 
continue. This is the difference between vegetables of the 
spiritual world, and vegetables of the natural world. 

101. That that origin is from use, is, because affections 
have reference to uses; use is the subject of all affection ; for 
man cannot be affected, unless it be for the sake of some- 
what; and this somewhat is use: now inasmuch as all affec- 
tion supposes use, and the vegetative soul, from its spiritual 



108 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

origin, is affection, as was said, therefore also it is use. Prom 
this cause it is, that in every vegetable, there is contained a 
use, a spiritual use in the spiritual world, and a spiritual and 
also a natural use in the natural world ; the spiritual use is 
for the various states of the mind, [animus], and the natural 
is for the various states of the body : that minds are refreshed, 
recreated and excited, and on the other hand are induced to 
sleepiness, sadness, and swooning, by the odors and savors 
of different kinds of vegetables, is known ; and that the body 
is healed by the various lixivia, menstruums, and medicines 
made from them, and on the other hand is killed by the poisons 
extracted from them, is also known. The external spiritual 
use from them in the heavens, is the recreation of minds, and 
the internal is the representation of divine things in them, 
and thereby also the elevation of the mind ; for the wiser 
angels see in them the quality of their affections in a series : 
the varieties of flowers in their order, and at the same time 
the variegations of colors and likewise odors, manifest those 
[affections], and whatever lies interiorly hid in them: for 
every ultimate affection, which is called natural, although it 
is spiritual, derives its quality from an interior affection, which 
is of intelligence and wisdom, and these derive their quality 
from use and the love thereof: in a word, nothing springs up 
from the ground in the heavens, but use, because use is the 
vegetative soul. Since use is the vegetative soul, therefore 
in those places in the spiritual world which are called deserts, 
where they are, who had in the world rejected works of chari- 
ty, which are uses themselves, there does not appear either 
grass or any herb, but mere wastes and sand. By the uses 
which [it was said] alone flourish in the heavens, is meant 
all good in act, which is from the Lord, by love to him, and 
by love towards the neighbor. Every vegetable there rep- 
resents a form of use, and whatsoever appears in it from its 
first to its ultimate, and from its ultimate to its first, or from 
the seed to the flower, and from the flower to the seed, ex- 
hibits the progression and extension of affection, and at the 
same time of use, from end to end. Those who are skilled 
in the arts of botany, chymistry, medicine, and pharmacy, 
come after death into the science of spiritual uses from the 
vegetables there, and also exercise that [science], finding the 
greatest delight in it; I have discoursed with them, and heard 
from them very wonderful things. 

102. From the things which have been hitherto adduced 
concerning the life which is from the Lord, and concerning 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 109 



the existence of all things in the universe from it, every per- 
son, wise in heart, may see, that nature does not produce 
any thing from itself, but that it only serves for producing 
to the spiritual [principle], which proceeds from the sun of 
heaven, which is the Lord, as the cause instrumental to its 
cause principal, or as a dead force to its living force. From 
which it is evident, how much they err, who ascribe the 
generations of animals and the productions of vegetables to 
nature : they are like those who ascribe magnificent and 
splendid works to the instrument, and not to the artificer, or 
who adore sculptured [images] and not God. The fallacies, 
which are innumerable, in all reasoning concerning things 
spiritual, moral and civil, thence arise: for fallacy is an in- 
version of order, and is the judgment of the eye and not of 
the mind, and is a conclusion from the appearance of a thing, 
and not from its essence : wherefore to reason from fallacies 
concerning the world and concerning the existence of things 
therein, is like confirming by reasonings that darkness is 
light, that what is dead is aiive, and that the body flows into 
the soul, and not vice versa; when, notwithstanding, it is an 
eternal truth, that spiritual influx is, and not physical influx, 
that is, of the soul, which is spiritual, into the body, which 
is material, and of the spiritual world into the natural world; 
likewise that the Divine from itself, and by what proceeds 
from itself, as it created all things, also sustains all things ; 
and that support is perpetual creation, as subsistence is per- 
petual existence. 

103. We have already treated of Infinity and Eternity, 
likewise of Providence and Omnipotence, which appertain 
to the Lord : we shall now treat of Omnipresence and 
Omniscience, which [also] appertain to him. That God is 
omnipresent, and that he is omniscient, is acknowledged in 
every religion; hence it is that they pray to God, that he 
may hear and that he may see, and have mercy ; which they 
would not do unless they believed in his omnipresence and 
omniscience. This belief is derived from influx from hea- 
ven with those who have religion, for, from religion itself, 
it does not come into question whether it is given, or how it 
is given. But whereas at this day, especially in the christian 
orb, natural men are multiplied, and these do not see any 
thing of God, and unless they see, they do not believe; if 
they say that they believe, it is either from their particular 
office, or from a blind science, or from hypocrisy, and yet 
they are able to see; in order therefore that they may see 
10 



110 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

concerning those things which are of God, it is allowed to 
treat of them from light, and from a rational view thence. 
For every man, even the merely natural and sensual, is 
endowed with an understanding, which can be elevated into 
the light of heaven, and see spiritual things, yea things di- 
vine, and also comprehend them, but only when he hears them 
or reads concerning them, and afterwards from the memory 
can speak of Them, but to think them in himself from him- 
self, he cannot do : the reason is because whilst he hears and 
reads, the understanding is separated from his own proper 
affection, and when it is so separated, then it is in the light of 
heaven: but when he thinks in himself from himself, then 
the understanding is conjoined to the affection of his will, 
and this fills it, detains it, and restrains it from going forth. 
But still the case in itself is such, that the understanding 
can be separated from the affection of the will, and so be 
elevated into the light of heaven with those natural men who 
are in the affection of truth, and have not confirmed them- 
selves in falses, but hardly with those who are not in the 
affection of truth, from their having rejected things of a 
divine nature, or confirmed themselves in falses; with these, 
there is as it were a shady veil [umhraculum] between spirit- 
ual light and natural light, although with many this vail is 
transparent. Now whereas every man, even the sensual 
corporeal, when he becomes adult, is endowed with such a 
faculty of understanding that he can comprehend those things 
which are of God, when he hears or reads them, and after- 
wards retain them in his memory, and thence speak, teach, 
and write them, it is important that the work concerning the 
divine attributes should be continued as it was begun ; we 
shall therefore now treat concerning the divine Omnipresence, 
and the divine Omniscence, lest the merely natural man 
bring them into doubt, even to denial, through want of 
willingness to understand any thing divine and spiritual, 
which he calls a want of ability. 

104. But how the Lord can be present with all who are in 
heaven, and in the universal terrestrial globe, and also know 
all things, and also the most singular with those in both the 
present and future [time], cannot be comprehended, unless 
by the following [propositions]. I. That in the natural 
world are spaces and times, but that in the spiritual world 
those things are appearances. II. That times and spaces 
are to be removed from the ideas, that the omnipresence of 
the Lord with all and every one may be comprehended, and 



ATHANASIAN CRERD. Ill 

his omniscience of things present and future appertaining 
to them. III. That all he ang Is of heaven and allthe men 
of the earth who const it te the church, are as one man, and 
that the Lord is the life of that man. IV. Consequently 
as the life is in singular and the most singular things of man, 
and knows all their state, so the Lord is in singular and the 
most singular things of the angels of heaven and of the men 
of the church. V. That the Lord is also present with those 
who are out of heaven and out of the church, who are in 
hell, or who will come into hell, and knows all their state, 
from the intellectual faculty which every man has, and from 
the opposite. VI. That from the omnipresence and omni- 
science of the Lord thus perceived, it may be apprehended 
by the understanding, how the Lord is the all in all of hea- 
ven and the church, and that we are in the Lord and the 
Lord in us. VII. The omnipresence and omniscience of 
the Lord may be comprehended also from the creation of the 
universe ; for it was so created by him, that he may be in 
first principles and in ultimates, and in the centre and at the 
same time in the circumferences, and that uses are the things 
in which he is. VIII. Inasmuch as the Lord has divine 
love and divine wisdom, therefore he has divine omnipresence 
and divine omniscience from both, but omnipresence is 
principally from the divine love, and omniscience is prin* 
cipally from the divine wisdom. 

105. That in the natural world are spaces and times, and 
that in the spiritual world those things are appearances, 
is, because all things which appear in the spiritual world, are 
immediately from the sun of heaven, which is the divine love 
of the Lord; but all things which appear in the natural world, 
are from the same, but by mediation of the sun of the world, 
which is pure fire : pure love, from which all things immedi- 
ately exist in the spiritual world, is immaterial, but pure fire, 
by which all things exist mediately in the natural world, is ma- 
terial ; hence it is, that all things which exist in the spiritual 
world, are, from their origin, spiritual, and that all things which 
exist in the natural world are, from their secondary origin, ma- 
terial ; and material things in themselves are fixed, stated, and 
mensurable \ fixed, because they continue, however the states 
of men may be changed, as earths, mountains and seas; stated, 
because they constantly recur by turns, as seasons, genera- 
tions, and germinations; and mensurable, because all things 
can be defined, as spaces by miles and furlongs, and these 
by feet and spans, and times by days, weeks, months, and 



112 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

years: but in the spiritual world all things are as it were 
fixed, as it were stated, and as it were mensurable, but still 
are not such in themselves, for they exist according to the 
states of the angels, and continue according to them, so that 
their states themselves and those [things] make one, whence 
they are also varied, as the states are varied : but this is chiefly 
the case in the world of spirits, into which every man comes 
first after death, not so in heaven and in hell : that this takes 
place in the world of spirits, is, because every man there un- 
dergoes changes of state, and is prepared for heaven or for 
hell. But the spirits do not reflect upon these changes and 
variations, because they are spiritual, and thence in a spirit- 
ual idea, with which all and singular things which they per- 
ceive by their [outward] sense, make one; likewise because 
they are separated from nature, and yet they see there things 
altogether similar to what they had seen in the world, as earths, 
mountains, valleys, waters, gardens, forests, vegetables, pala- 
ces, houses, garments with which they are clothed, food by 
which they are nourished, and moreover animals and them- 
selves as men : they see all these things in a clearer light than 
they saw the like tilings in the world, and also feel them with 
a more exquisite touch than in the world : hence man after 
his departure does not at all know that he has put off his 
material [part], and that he has emigrated out of the world 
of his body into the world of his spirit : I have heard many 
saying, that they were not deceased, and that they could not 
understand how any thing of their body could be rejected in 
the grave ; and this by reason that all things there are similar ; 
not knowing, that those things which they there see and feel, 
are not material, but substantial from a spiritual origin; and 
that yet they are still real things, because they are from the 
same origin as all things of the world, with this only differ- 
ence, that to those things which are in the natural world some- 
thing accessary, as it were superinduced, is given from the 
sun of the world, from which they become material, fixed, sta- 
ted, and mensurable: but still I can assert, that those things 
which are in the spiritual world are more real than those 
which are in the natural world, for the dead [principle], which 
is accessary to the spiritual principle in nature, does not con- 
stitute reality, but diminishes it ; that it diminishes it, appears 
manifestly from the state of the angels of heaven compared 
with the state of men of the earth, and from all things which 
are in heaven compared with all things which are in the world. 
106. Since there are similar things in heaven as in our 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 113 

world, therefore also there are spaces and times in the hea- 
vens, but spaces there, as well as the earths themselves, and 
the things which are upon them, are appearances, for they 
appear according to the states of the angels, and the exten- 
sions of spaces and distance, according to the similitudes and 
dissimilitudes of states; by states are understood states of 
love and wisdom, or of affection and of the thoughts thence, 
which are manifold and various: according to these is the 
distance of the angelic societies in the heavens and also of 
the heavens from the hells, as likewise of the societies of the 
latter from each other. It has been given to see, how simi- 
litude of state conjoins, and contracts the extension of space 
or distance, and how dissimilitude separates, and produces 
extension of space or distance : there they who to ap- 
pearance are at the distance of a thousand miles from each 
other, can be present in a moment, when the love of one 
to the other is excited, and on the other hand they who are 
discoursing together can be separated in like manner the 
moment any aversion is excited. That spaces in the spiritual 
world are only appearances, has also been made evident to 
me from this, that there have been present with me several, 
who were from remote lands, as from the various kingdoms 
of Europe, from Africa, and India, likewise also the inhabit 
tants of the planets and of the earths the most distant. 
But nevertheless spaces in the heavens still appear extended 
in like manner as the spaces of our earth; but because the 
spaces there are from a spiritual origin, and not at the same 
time natural, and thence appear according to the states of 
the angels, therefore the angels cannot have any idea of 
spaces, but instead thereof an idea of their own states ; for 
when the spaces are changed, an idea thereof takes place 
from an origin which is spiritual, thus from a similitude and 
dissimilitude of affections and of thoughts thence. It is 
similar with times, for as are spaces, so are times ; pro- 
gressions by spaces are also progressions by times : that 
these also are appearances of states, is because the sun of 
heaven, which is the Lord, does not there make days and 
years by circumvolutions and by progressions, as the sun of 
the world appears to do; wherefore in the heavens there is 
perpetual light and perpetual spring, and hence times there 
are not fixed, stated and mensurable : now because these also 
vary, according to the states of the affections and thoughts 
thence, for they are short and contracted in a delightful state 
of the affections, and long and protracted in an undelightful 
10* 



114 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

state, therefore the angels cannot have any idea of time from 
appearance, but an idea of states from the origin thereof. 
From these considerations it is evident, that the angels in 
heaven have no idea of space and time, but a spiritual idea 
concerning them, which is an idea of state. But the idea 
of state, and thence idea of the appearance of space and 
times, is not given unless in the ultimates of creation there, 
and from them ; the ultimates of creation there are earths, 
upon which the angels dwell; there spaces and times appear, 
and not in the spiritual things themselves, from which the 
ultimates are created: yea neither [do they appear] in the 
affections themselves of the angels, unless the thought from 
them pervades to ultimates. It is otherwise in the natural 
world, where spaces and times are fixed, stated, and men- 
surable, and therefore enter into the thoughts of men 
and bound them, and distinguish them from the spiritual 
thoughts of angels. It is from this circumstance principally, 
that man can comprehend with difficulty the divine omnipre- 
sence and omniscience, for if he desires to comprehend them, 
he may fall into the error, that God is the inmost [principle] 
of nature, and thus omnipresent and omniscient. 

107. That spaces and times are to be removed from the ideas , 
that the omnipresence of the Lord with all and, every one may 
be comprehended, and his omniscience of things present and 
future : but whereas spaces and times can hardly be removed 
from the ideas of thought of the natural man, it is better 
that a simple man should think of the divine omnipresence 
and omniscience not from any reasoning of the understand- 
ing. It is sufficient that he believe them simply from reli- 
gion, and if he thinks from reason, let him say with himself, 
that they are, because they of God, and God is every where 
and infinite, likewise because the Word teaches this ; and if 
he thinks of them from nature, and its spaces and times, let 
him say with himself, that they are miraculously effected. 
But whereas at this day naturalism has nearly inundated the 
church, and this cannot be shaken off except by things 
rational, whereby man may see that a thing is so, therefore 
these divine [attributes] also shall be thereby brought forward 
into light out of the darkness which nature induces ; which 
may also be effected, because, as was said before, man is 
endowed with an understanding, which may be elevated into 
the interior light of heaven, if man does but love to know 
truths from a principle of love : all naturalism arises from 
thought concerning things divine from things proper to na- 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 115 

ture only, which are matter, space, and time ; the mind 
which inheres in such things, and is not willing to believe 
any thing but what it understands, cannot do otherwise than 
blind its understanding, and from the darkness in which it 
immerses it, denies that there is any Divine Providence, and 
thence omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience, when 
nevertheless these things are altogether as religion teaches, 
as well within nature as above it, but they cannot be com- 
prehended in the understanding, unless spaces and times are 
removed from the ideas of its thought : for these have place 
in some manner in every idea of thought; for unless they 
are removed, man cannot think otherwise than that nature is 
all, that it is from itself, and that life is from it, and hence 
that the inmost principle of nature is what is called God, 
and that all besides is ideal. I know that persons will also 
wonder, that any existence can be given where there is 
neither time nor space ; and that the Divine itself is without 
time and space, and that spiritual beings are not in them, 
but only in appearances of them, when notwithstanding di- 
vine spiritual things are the very essences of all things, 
which have existed and which do exist, and that natural 
things without them are as bodies without a soul, which be- 
come carcasses. Every man who is made a naturalist by 
thoughts from nature, remains also such after death, and 
calls all things, which he sees in the spiritual world, natural, 
because they are similar ; still however they are illustrated 
and taught by angels that they are not natural, but that they 
are appearances of things natural ; they are also convinced 
so as to affirm that it is so ; but still they relapse, and wor- 
ship nature as in the world, and at length separate them- 
selves from angels, and fall into hell, nor can they be taken 
out thence to eternity ; the reason is, because they have not 
a spiritual soul, but a natural, such as appertains to beasts, 
with the faculty however of thinking and speaking, because 
they were born men. Now because the hells are filled 
with such at this day, more than before, it is of importance 
that such dense darkness arising from nature, which at this 
day crowds and bars up the thresholds of men's understand- 
ing, be removed by light rational from spiritual. 

108. That all the angels of heaven, and all men of the 
earth who make the church, are as one man, and that the 
Lord is the life of that man: this you may see confirmed in 
the work concerning Heaven and Hell, under the following 
articles : 1st. that the universal heaven, in a complex, has 



116 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

reference to one man, n. 59 to 67 : 2d. that each society in 
the heavens has reference to one man, n. 68 to 72 : 3d. that 
hence every angel is in a perfect human form, n. 73 to 77 : 
and 4th. that heaven in the whole and in part has reference 
to man, which is from the Divine Human of the Lord, n. 78 
to 87: likewise that there is a correspondence of all things 
of heaven with all things of man, n. 87 to 102: that the like 
may be said of the church of the Lord in the earth, n. 57. 
That heaven is as one man, experience has taught, and rea- 
son teaches. Experience : it has been granted [me] to see 
a society consisting of thousands of angels, as one man of 
middling stature; likewise societies consisting of fewer in 
like manner : but this does not appear to the angels in the 
society, but to the angels who are out of that society at a 
distance, and then when a society is to be purified from 
strangers; when this takes place, all they who constitute the 
life of the society are within that man, but they who do not 
constitute [the life] are out of him, these are removed, and 
those remain. It is similar with the universal heaven before 
the Lord : hence and from no other cause it is, that every 
angel and spirit is a man in a similar form in which he was 
a man on earth. That the church in the earth also is be- 
fore the Lord as a man, has not been seen, but heard ; like- 
wise that it is also distinguished into societies, and that every 
society is a man ; likewise that all who are within that man 
are within heaven, but they who are out of him are in hell ; 
the cause of this has also been mentioned, viz.: that every 
man of the church is also an angel of heaven, for he be- 
comes an angel after death : moreover the church in the 
earth, not only, together with the angels, constitutes the in- 
teriors of that man, but also the exteriors, which are called 
cartilaginous and bony : this the church constitutes, because 
men of the earth are endued with a body, in which the ulti- 
mate spiritual principle is clothed with the natural; this con- 
stitutes the conjunction of heaven with the church, and of 
the church with heaven. From reason : that heaven and 
the church are a man, in the concrete or complex, greatest, 
less, and least, the sole cause is, because God is a man, and 
hence the Divine Proceeding, which is the Divine from him, 
is similar in every thing, least and greatest, which is man ; 
for as was said above, the Divine is not in space and ex- 
tended, but causes spaces and extensions to exist in the ulti- 
mates of his creation, in the heavens apparently, in the world 
actually : but still spaces and extensions are not spaces and 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 117 

extensions before God, for he is in his Divine every where : 
this is manifestly evident from this [circumstance,] that the 
universal angelic heaven, with the church, is, before the 
Lord as one man ; in like manner a society consisting of 
thousands of angels, although their habitations appear ex- 
tended through much space : and it is also evident from this 
[consideration,] that the universal heaven, likewise an entire 
society in heaven, can, at the good pleasure of the Lord, 
appear as a man, great or small, as a giant or as an infant, 
and yet it is not the angels, who so appear, but the Divine 
in them ; for the angels are only recipients of the Divine 
from the Lord, and the Divine in them constitutes the an- 
gelic principle, and thence heaven. Since angels are only 
recipients, and the Divine in them constitutes the angelic 
principle and heaven, it is evident that the Lord is the life of 
that man, that is, of heaven and the church. 

109. Consequently , that as life is in singular and most 
singular things of man, and knows all their state ; so the 
Lord is in singular and the most singular things of the angels 
of heaven, and of the men of the church. That life is in 
singular, and the most singular things of man, is, because 
the many various and divers things in man, which are called 
members, organs, and viscera, so make one, that man knows 
no otherwise than that he is a simple, and not a compound 
[being]. That life is in the most singular things of man, is 
evident from this consideration, that from his own life he 
sees, hears, smells, and tastes, which could not be effected 
unless the organs of those senses also lived from the life of 
his soul; likewise from this consideration, that the whole 
surface of the body is endued with the sense of touch, it 
is the life which causes that sense, and not the skin without 
the life : it is evident also from this circumstance, that all 
the muscles under the skin are subject to the arbitrement of 
the life of man's will and understanding, and are moved at 
their nod, thus not only the hands and feet, and the whole 
body, but also the tongue, the lips, the face, with the whole 
head ; the latter things and the former cannot be moved by 
the body alone, but by the life from the will and understand- 
ing, together with the life in the members themselves; it is 
the same with every one of the viscera in the body, each of 
which performs therein its own office, and acts obsequiously 
according to the laws of order inscribed on it, but this is 
from the actuation of the life, in a manner unknown to 
man, by motion in all and singular things from the heart and 



118 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

lungs, and by sense in all and singular things from the cere- 
bellum. That life is in singular and in most singular things 
of man, is because the animal form, of which we have 
treated above, is the form itself of life : for life from its first 
fountain, which is the sun of heaven or the Lord, is perpetu- 
ally in the effort of forming a likeness and image of itself, 
that is, a man, and from man an angel, wherefore from the 
ultimates, which are created from it, it adjoins to itself 
things conformable, whereby man may exist, in whom it may 
live. Hence it is evident, that life is in singular and most 
singular things of man ; and that the part or even particle in 
which life is not, becomes dead and is dissociated. Now 
whereas men and angels are not lives, but only recipients of 
life from the Lord, and the universal heaven, with the 
church, before the Lord is as one man, it is evident that the 
Lord is the life of that man, that is of heaven and of the 
church, and also that he is omnipresent and omniscient in 
singular and most singular things of the angels of heaven 
and men of the church. Because the universal heaven, with 
the church, before the Lord is as one man, and according to 
the [divine] arbitrement great or small, as a giant or as an 
infant, it is manifest that the life or spiritual [principle] 
which proceeds from the Lord, is not in space, or extended, 
with the angels of heaven and with men of the church ; con- 
sequently that spaces and times are to be removed from the 
ideas, that the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord 
with all and every one may be comprehended. 

1 10. That the Lord is also present with those who are out 
of heaven and the church, who are in hell, or will come into 
hell, and knows all their state, from the intellectual faculty 
with which every man is endowed, and from the opposite. 
Every man has three degrees of life a lowest in common 
with the beasts, and two superior which are not common 
with them ; by these two superior degrees man is man : with 
the evil these degrees are closed, but open with the good; 
but these degrees are not closed with the evil in regard 
to the light of heaven, which is wisdom, which proceeds 
from the Lord as a sun, but they are closed in regard to the 
heat, which is love, which together thence proceeds: from 
this circumstance it is, that every man, even an evil one, has 
the faculty of understanding, but not the faculty of willing 
from celestial love; for the will is the receptacle of heat, 
that is, of love, and the understanding is the receptacle of 
light, that is, of wisdom, from that sun. That every man is 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 



119 



not intelligent and wise, is, because be, wbo is not, bas by 
his life closed in himself the receptacle of that love ; which 
beino- closed, he is not willing to understand any other thing 
than what he loves, for this he wills and loves to think, and 
thence also to understand. Now inasmuch as every man, 
even an evil one, has the faculty of understanding, and that 
faculty is from the influx of light from the sun which is the 
Lord, it is evident that the Lord is also present with those 
who are out of heaven and the church, who either are in hell 
or will come into hell : from that faculty it also is, that man 
can think and reason concerning various things, which beasts 
cannot do ; and also it is from that that he lives for ever. 
Another reason of the Lord's omnipresence in hell, is be- 
cause the universal hell is before the Lord, equally as the 
universal heaven, as one man, but as a man-devil, or a man- 
monster, with which all things are in opposition to those 
which are in the divine man-angel, wherefore from this latter 
man is known all that is in the former, that is, from heaven, 
all that is in hell ; for from good is known evil, and from 
truth what is false, thus all the quality of the latter from the 
quality of the former. There are three heavens, and there 
are three hells ; and as the heavens are distinguished into 
societies, so also are the hells, and every society of hell cor- 
responds, from opposition, to a society of heaven ; the cor- 
respondence is as between good affections and evil affections, 
for all societies are affections : thus, in like manner, as every 
society of heaven, in the view of the Lord, is as one man- 
angel, in the likeness of his own affection, as was said above, 
so every society of hell, in the view of the Lord, is as one 
man-devil, in the likeness of his own evil affection : it has 
also been given [me] to see this: they appear indeed as men, 
but monstrous : I have seen three kinds of them, the fiery, 
the black, and the pallid, but all of them with deformed 
faces, dry tones of voice, external speech, and gestures 
similar : they are all in lascivious loves and no one in chaste 
love, the delights of their will are evils, and the delights of 
their thoughts are falses. 

111. That from the omnipresence and omniscience of the 
Lord thus perceived, it may be apprehended by the understand- 
ing how the Lord is the all in all of heaven and the church, 
and that we are in the Lord, and he in us. By all things 
of heaven and the church is understood divine truth and 
divine good, the former is from the light of the sun of hea- 
ven, which is wisdom, and the latter is from the heat of the 



120 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

sun of heaven, which is Jove ; the angels, in proportion as 
they are recipients of those principles, are heaven in general, 
and are themselves heavens in particular; and men, in pro- 
portion as they are recipients of them, are the church in 
general, and churches in particular : there is not given any 
thing with any angel, which makes heaven in him, nor any 
thing with any man, which makes the church in him, but 
the Divine proceeding from the Lord ; for that all the truth 
of faith and all the good of love is from the Lord, and 
nothing thereof from man, is known. From these consider- 
ations it is evident, that the Lord is the all and in all of hea- 
ven and the church. That we are in the Lord, and he in 
us, the Lord himself teaches in John: 'Jesus said, he who 
eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me and I 
in him, 1 vi. 56 : and again : c In that day ye shall know, that 
ye are in me, and I in you,' xiv. 20, 21 : and elsewhere, that 
' in him we live, and move, and have our being.' All the 
angels of heaven, and all the men of the church are in the 
Lord, and the Lord in them, when they are in that celestial 
man spoken of above : angels and men are then in the Lord, 
because they are recipients of life from him, thus are in his 
Divine, and the Lord is in them, because he is life in recipi- 
ents. From these considerations it is evident, that all those 
who are in a natural idea concerning the Lord, can have no 
understanding of his divine omnipresence, otherwise than as 
intuitive, when notwithstanding it is actual, such as is the 
omnipresence of the holy spirit, which is the Divine Proceed- 
ing. 

112. That the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord 
may also be comprehended from the creation of the universe ; 
for the universe was so created by him that he is in first prin- 
ciples and in ultimates, also in the centre and in the circum- 
ference, and that uses are what he is in. That it is so may 
appear from the creation of the universe, from the life of 
man, and from the essence of uses. The creation of 
the universe cannot be better seen in any other way 
than from the types thereof in the heavens : there creation is 
perpetual and instantaneous, for in the spiritual world earths 
exist in a moment, and upon them paradisiacal gardens, and 
in these, trees full of fruits, also shrubs, flowers, and plants 
of all kinds, which, when viewed by a wise [man], are found 
to be correspondences of the uses in which the angels are, 
to whom they are given for reward ; they have also houses be- 
stowed on them, full of utensils and decorations according 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 121 

to their uses ; raiment also is given to them according to their 
uses, and likewise food which is eatable and relishing accor- 
ding to uses ; besides pleasant conversations, which also are 
uses, because they are recreations : all these things are given 
gratis, but still on account of the uses which they perform : 
in a word, the universal heaven is full of uses, so that it may 
be called the very kingdom of uses. On the other hand, they 
who do not perform uses, are sent into the hells, where they 
are compelled by a judge to labor, and if they refuse, no 
food is given them, nor clothing nor a bed to lie on, and they 
are laughed at by their associates as servants by their masters ; 
it is also permitted them by the judge, \ut iUorum mancipia 
sint] to use them as their slaves, and if they withdraw others 
from their labors they are severely punished, this and that 
is done until they are compelled ; but they who cannot be so 
compelled, are cast out into deserts, where a piece of bread 
is daily given them, and water to drink, and they dwell soli- 
tary in miserable cottages or in caves; and because they per- 
form no uses, the earth where they are, is so barren, that the 
least appearance of turf, on which is grass, is rarely seen. In 
deserts and in hells I have seen several of noble descent, who 
in the world gave themselves up to idleness, who courted offi- 
ces, and performed the functions thereof, not for the sake of 
use, but for honor and gain, which were the only uses to 
them. The uses which they perform in the heavens, and the 
labors which they do in the hells, are partly like those which 
exist in the world, but still the uses for the most part are 
spiritual [uses], which cannot be described by any natural 
language, and, what I have often wondered at, do not fall in- 
to the ideas of natural thought : such is the spiritual [princi- 
ple] in most cases. From the perpetual and instantaneous 
creation of all things in the heavens may be seen, as in a 
type, the creation of the whole world with its earths, that 
there is nothing therein created but for use ; in general, one 
kingdom of nature for another, the mineral kingdom for the 
vegetable, this for the animal, and both for the human race, 
that the latter may serve the Lord in performing uses to the 
neighbor. From the life of man, in which, if viewed from 
the creation of all things in him, there will not be found a 
part which is not for use, not a fibre or vessel in the brains, 
in the organs of the senses, in the muscles, nor in any of 
the viscera of the thorax and abdomen, or in the rest, which 
is not for some use in general and in particular, thus not for 
itself, but for all about it and the whole together [propter 



221 ATHANASIAN CREED. 

omnia et consocia] : the greater forms themselves, which are 
called members, sensories, mucles, viscera, composed and or- 
ganized from fibres and vessels, are all formed from use, in use, 
and to use, so that they may be simply called uses, of which 
the whole man is composed and formed ; whence it man- 
ifestly appears, that their origin is from use only, and that 
they have use only for their end. That every man in like 
manner is created and born for use, is manifestly evident 
from the use of all things in him, and from his state after 
death, when, if he does not perform any use, he is accounted 
so vile, as to be cast down into infernal prisons, or into desert 
places: that man is born that he may be use, the life also 
manifests, for the man whose life is from the love of uses, is 
altogether different to him whose life is from the love of idle- 
ness [ptii], by which is meant a life consisting only in con- 
versation, entertainments and diversions : the life of the love 
of use is the life of the love of the public good, and also of love 
of the neighbor, and of the love of the Lord, for the Lord 
does uses to man by man, whence the life of the love of use 
is divine spiritual, wherefore every one who loves good use, and 
from the love thereof does it, is loved by the Lord, and is re- 
ceived with joy in heaven by the angels : but the life of the 
love of idleness is a life of the love of self and of the world, 
and hence is a merely natural life, which does not hold the 
thoughts together but diffuses them abroad into every vanity, 
and thereby turns man away from the delights of wisdom and 
immerses him in the delights of the body only, and of the 
world, with which evils cohere ; wherefore after death he is 
let down into the infernal society to which he addicted him- 
self in the world, and there is compelled to labor through 
hunger and scarcity of food. By uses, in the heavens and 
earths, are understood ministries, functions, studies of life, 
employments, various family exercises, labors, consequently 
all things which are opposite to idleness and indolence. 
From the essence of uses : the essence of uses is the pub- 
lic good ; the public good, in the most general sense, with the 
angels, is the good of the whole heaven, in a senseless gene- 
ral the good of the society, and in a particular sense the good 
of each individual of the society. But with men, the essence 
of uses, in the most general sense, is the good of the whole 
human race both spiritual and civil, in a sense less general 
the good of their country, in a particular sense the good of so- 
ciety, and in a singular sense the good of each individual; 
and whereas those goods constitute their essence, love is their 



ATHANASIAN CREED. 123 

life, since all good is of love, and in love there is life : in this 
love is every one, who is delighted with the use in which he 
is for the sake of the use, whether he be a king, magistrate, 
a priest, a minister a general, a merchant, or laborer: every 
one who is delighted with the use of his function for the 
sake of the use, loves his country and fellow-citizens, but 
he who is not delighted therewith for the sake of use, but 
only does it for the sake of himself, for honors and wealth, 
does not in his heart love his country, and fellow-citizens, 
but only himself and the world; the reason is, because no 
one can be kept by the Lord in the love of his neighbor, 
unless he be in some love towards the public ; and no one 
can be in that love, but he who is in the love of use for the 
sake of use, or in the love of use from use, thus from the 
Lord. Now because all and singular things in the world 
were created in the beginning for use, and also all things in 
man were formed for use, and the Lord from creation viewed 
all the human race as one man, in whom every one in like 
manner is for use, or a use, and because the Lord himself 
is the life of that man, as was said above, it is evident, that 
the universe was so created, that the Lord is in first princi- 
ples and in ultimates, also in the centre and in the circum- 
ference, that is, in the midst of all, and that uses are what 
he is in. From these considerations also may be comprehend- 
ed the omnipresence and omniscience of the Lord. 

113. Since to the Lord appertains divine love and divine 
wisdom, therefore to him also appertains divine omnipresence 
and divine omniscience from both, but omnipresence is princi- 
pally from the divine love, and omniscience is principally from 
the divine icisdom. Love and wisdom in the Lord are not two 
but one, and this one is divine love, which before the angels 
of heaven appears as a sun : but love and wisdom proceeding 
from the Lord as a sun appear as two distinct [principles], 
love appears as heat, and wisdom as light : both these from 
their origin, which is the sun, act altogether as one, but are 
separated with angels of heaven and with men of the church ; 
with some of them love, which is heat, is more received than 
wisdom, which is light, these are called celestial angels and 
men ; and with some wisdom, which is light, is more received 
than love, which is heat, these are called spiritual angels and 
men. These things may be illustrated from the sun of the 
world : in that sun, fire and the origin of light are altogether 
one, and this one is the fiery [principle] of that sun : from this 
proceeds heat, and at the same time light, which appear as 



142 ATHAN ASIAN CREED; 

two distinct things, but still from their origin they act as one : 
this one appears in the earth in the time of spring and sum- 
mer, but thev are two distinct things according to the turning 
of the earth to the sun, and thus also according to reception, 
direct or oblique: this correspondence is adduced by way of 
illustration. The case is similar with respect to omnipresence 
and omniscience ; these in the Lord are one, but still they 
proceed from the Lord as two distinct attributes, for omni- 
presence has reference to love, and omniscience to wisdom, 
or, what is the same, omnipresence has reference to good, 
and omniscience to truth, since all good is of love, and all 
truth is of wisdom. The reason why the omnipresence of 
the Lord has reference to love and good, is, because the Lord 
is present with man in the good of his love; and the reason 
why omniscience has reference to wisdom and truth, is, be- 
cause the Lord from man's good of love is omnipresent in 
the truths of his understanding, and this omnipresence is call- 
ed omniscience; as in particular with one man so in gene- 
ral with all. 



THE END 



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